A CHINESE EXPORT SEMI-EGGSHELL PORCELAIN 'DUTCH MARKET' ARMORIAL SOUP PLATE

According to the master of the rolls in the Province of Utrecht, these arms probably refer to Jan Louis van Hardenbroek, born in Neerlandbroek, Utrecht in 1691. Hardenbroek was a naval captain serving the Admiralty of Amsterdam beginning in 1713, who married Johanna Charlotte van Renesse van Lockhorst in 1718. He commanded a total of seven warships in the years spanning 1715-1731, was admitted into the Utrecht nobility in 1734 and commissioned the well-known thinly-potted porcelain dishes with this coat-of-arms.

Dr. Jochem Kroes, discussing the service, notes that the grisaille decoration, which came into use by Chinese manufactories in the mid-1720s, enjoyed particular popularity among Dutch clients in the 1730s. Praising it as "exceptional", he places this service chronologically first among the group of Dutch-market services of the period painted with intricate grisaille diaper. See J. Kroes, Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market, pp. 27-28, fig. xxv and pp. 259-260, cat. no. 171.