JAPANESE ARITA PORCELAIN JUG WITH SILVER LID

Japanese arita porcelain jug with silver lid

Cornelis van der Hoeff

Amsterdam, 1743

17,5 cm high

The pear-shaped Arita jug in blue and white is decorated with panels depicting flowers and twigs, separated by bands with stylized scrolling twigs. The silver hinged and slightly domed circular lid is set in the center with a silver medal. This medal was awarded to the ‘Schutterij of Amsterdam’ for suppressing the ‘Aansprekersoproer’ in 1696 and was made by Reynier Arondeaux. The shell-shaped thumb rest is attached to the hinge that connects the lid and the silver leaf-shaped mount on the handle. Fully marked on the hinge on the inside.

The commemorative medal distributed by the municipality of Amsterdam to the members of the “schutterij“ for restoring peace during the “Aansprekersoproer,” 1696 Obverse: The sea god Neptune on a two-horse-drawn sea chariot, with a trident in the left hand and the right hand stretched out over the waves, which are whipped up by the storm winds, with the foreground a nest of kingfishers. Inscription: ‘MOTOS PRÆSTAT COMPONERE FLVCTVS’ (it is better to restrain the furious waves). Reverse: The same nest of kingfishers on a calm sea, illuminated by the rays of the rising sun and under a lambrequin with the inscription: ‘HALCYONTBVS REDVCTIS / SENATVS AMSTELOD. / CIVIBVS SVIS HOC / ANTIQVÆ VIRTVTIS / SPECTATÆQ. FIDEI / PRÆMIVM LARGITVR’ (now that the kingfishers have returned, the Council of Amsterdam bestows this on its citizens as a reward for old virtue and tried loyalty).

The reason for the uproar was the tax on marriages and burials introduced by the States of Holland, which was intended to alleviate the high costs of the war with France that had been going on since 1688. In order to collect the levy, the city council issued a decree on 10 January, 1696, which at the same time reorganized the entire funeral business. The new regulation made the Amsterdam undertakers, called addressees (Aansprekers), and the corpse and lantern bearers into urban officials, who would henceforth be appointed by the mayors. Initially, the resistance came from the addressees themselves, who saw the label as an outright threat to their livelihood, but they had succeeded in making the poorer inhabitants of the city believe that they would bear the brunt of the new measures. On Monday, 30 January, 1696, even some of the addressees appeared at the city hall to complain. At the end of the afternoon, two mayors in the Kalverstraat were insulted. There was also unrest at the chaplain’s house on the Prinsengracht, where the office of the new urban burial service was temporarily located. The next day, lord mayors decided to keep troops ready at the chaplain’s house and at the main city gates. The measure turned out to be a good one. The next morning, a crowd had gathered at the chaplain house, harassing the newly appointed officers and calling them villains and black death spreaders. Many only managed to save the day by fleeing into the adjacent houses. The riot continued with the attacking and looting of the houses, the inventory was thrown into the street by the assailants. Several prints and drawings have been preserved. For example, rioters were in front of the house of former mayor Joan de Vries on the Herengracht. Some of them ran away in terror while the militia attacked some other protesters with guns and swords. Angry citizens also ransacked the house of mayor Jacob Boreel on the Herengracht. An angry mob ransacked the Pinto house (of the Jew Ishac de Pinto) in the Sint Antoniesbreestraat. While the house of Captain Martinus Spaaroog on the Reguliersgracht also did not escape the looting on 31 January and 1 February 1696.

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