ECHOES FROM THE MING AND EARLY QING

The Baert-Devos Collection

by Becky MacGuire

The best art collections tell us stories from the past, connecting us to the human impulses and historical context that led to the creation of great works of art. The outstanding Baert-Devos Collection of Chinese porcelain is very much in this tradition. Its carefully considered selections have much to teach us about a particularly rich and vibrant era of Chinese porcelain production.

The collection focuses on the fascinating range of blue and white wares made from the mid-16th century through the very early 18th century, with deep concentrations of Wanli, Transitional and Kangxi period material. Those 150 years were a time of great change in China, change that deeply affected the kilns at Jingdezhen and that is reflected in the collection. After the pivotal mastery of underglaze blue-decorated porcelain in the 14th century, under the Yuan dynasty, this stunning ware had flourished under 15th century Ming emperors. High-fired Chinese blue and white, its gleaming white making a brilliant contrast with lustrous cobalt blue, was unique in all the world. It traveled on global trading networks both overland and on the seas, including aboard the famous 15th century voyages of the Ming admiral Zheng He, reaching India, the Arabian peninsula, Africa and Europe. It was coveted wherever it went.

Despite the many accomplishments of the Ming dynasty—the building of the Forbidden City and a major expansion of the Great Wall among them—the long reign of the Wanli emperor (1573-1620) saw a decline in Ming fortunes and in 1608 the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen were shuttered in a cost-cutting measure. While this represented a huge loss of business, the very size of the Imperial household’s orders had already fostered a large network of very capable private kilns to help fulfill orders. Freed from the strict and formal requirements of Imperial commissions, the potters of Jingdezhen were now well-positioned to supply both domestic and overseas patrons with porcelains that fully expressed their great facility with both form and decoration.

It is these porcelains that comprise much of the Baert-Devos Collection. The collectors clearly appreciated the confident forms—some drawn from the classic bronze and ceramic repertoire; others from the natural world or distant cultures—and freely painted decoration of late Ming through early Qing porcelains. Subjects are sometimes derived from favorite dramas and legends, sometimes feature mythical beasts or birds or animals. Appropriately for porcelains that so often journeyed across the seas, a number of pieces are painted with aquatic creatures, from fish to crabs and shrimp, and a rare ewer is in the form of a crayfish. A number of elegant, marked Imperial pieces, primarily made under the Jiajing and Wanli emperors, remind us of the more formalized decoration of dragons and scrollwork favored at the Imperial court. These include an important and unusually large iron-red and underglaze blue dragon bowl with a Jiajing Imperial mark.

It was during the reign of the Jiajing emperor that the first Europeans reached Asia by sail, and in the period covered by the Baert-Devos Collection foreign buyers became more and more active in the Chinese porcelain market. Portuguese were the first to arrive, establishing a post in Malacca in 1511. The Spanish followed later in the century and they were eventually joined by the Dutch and then the English. The collection features porcelains made for all of these foreigners as well as for the Japanese market. A  large dragon dish displays on its exterior the royal Portuguese coat-of-arms and two armillary spheres, personal symbol of King Manuel I (r. 1495-1521)—one of the very rare ‘First Orders’ commissioned by early Portuguese traders.

But it was the Dutch who really seized upon the potential of Chinese porcelain, importing shiploads to Amsterdam during the 17th century and becoming Europe’s distribution hub for these highly desirable wares. The collection is particularly rich in the ‘kraak’ porcelains that were made for Dutch traders, including ‘klapmuts’ bowls, ewers, vases, pomegranate-form kendi and numerous dishes. The carefully chosen ‘kraak’ dishes have particularly appealing central decoration, ranging from insects and birds to leaping carp, horses and scholars. A remarkable 13 of these pieces display the rare ‘egret’ mark on the base, an enigmatic symbol which inevitably accompanies a high quality piece. In fact, the 2025 landmark publication of London dealers Marchant, One Hundred Years, that cites Mr. and Mrs. Baert-Devos as notable collectors refers to them anonymously as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Egret’.

Marchant was one of a small group of top dealers that Mr. and Mrs. Baert-Devos patronized in their 35+ years of collecting, a group that included Marc Michot, Vanderven, Luis Alegria and Jorge Welsh as well as Rob Michiels auctions. As proud citizens of the Lowlands, where so much of this porcelain first entered Europe, and specifically of West Flanders, the collecting couple were particularly pleased to entrust a West Flanders auction house with their cherished collection.

Those who follow the Chinese porcelain market will understand how challenging it is to assemble a collection with such consistently high quality. From charming figures to elegant ewers to exuberantly painted dishes, each piece tells a story of design influences, cultural interchange and the skill and creativity of Chinese potters. Looking through the collection, the care with which it was assembled is clearly evident and the joy each special find must have brought is easy to imagine. Before coming to the Baert-Devos collection, these porcelains had already brought pleasure for centuries, and they will go on to ‘spark joy’ for centuries to come. As an inscription on one of two rare Baert-Devos ‘Magic Fountain’ pieces reads:

Live forever; never become old