The city and province of Groningen has had a longstanding interest in Oriental ceramics. Shortly after it opened in 1894, the Groninger Museum received gifts and bequests of Oriental porcelain from collectors and local households. While expanding and broadening the collection, the conservator, Ms. Minke A. de Visser (active from 1921 to 1966), focused both on Chinese and Japanese ceramic production as well as on porcelain exported to the Netherlands. This export porcelain from the Dutch East India Company (VOC) period (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) is now the largest and most important and part of the collection, amounting to approximately 9000 pieces.
Detail of a dish, China, famille verte
ca. 1700
Groninger Museum, Groningen
inv. no. 2003-2
Acquired with the support of the Rembrandt Society and the Friends of the Groninger Museum in 2003
The Groninger Museum recently became interested in porcelain salvaged from shipwrecks: such salvage has important documentary value. Another aspect receiving attention is East-West interaction the influence of Oriental porcelain on Delft earthenware and other European ceramics, for example. The collection is regularly expanded with gifts, bequests and acquisitions.
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