The GuWei Museum Acquires Two 17th-Century Chinese Export Porcelain Tankards

“This object is standing on two legs,” says Floris van der Ven, director of Vanderven Oriental Art, of a 17th-century porcelain tankard that they exhibited at the 2025 Maastricht fair. Dealers of Chinese early terracotta and bronzes, as well as 16th-18th-century Chinese porcelain, Vanderven was among the founding dealers of TEFAF Maastricht. “One is the Dutch leg and the other is the Chinese leg.” An example of Chinese export porcelain, the shape and function of such tankards are European while the material and decoration are Chinese, altogether telling a unique tale of cross-cultural exchange — part of what attracted the GuWei Museum in Hong Kong to acquire two such tankards from Vanderven at the fair.

“They complement the museum’s broader holdings of export goods from the Age of Exploration, including silverware, lacquerware, enamelware, porcelain, and textiles,” shares Pauline Ngai, who co-founded the GuWei Museum together with Franco Cutrupia. The two works join the museum’s growing collection of tankards. While the GuWei Museum has a particularly extensive collection of late Ming dynasty tankards and mugs, objects of this kind are relatively rare in museums and collections across China and Asia. “Their inclusion not only enhances the depth of the collection but also furthers the museum’s mission to promote the appreciation of Chinese auspicious culture and the artistic achievements of export items.”

Cylindrical tankards made of pewter and ceramic were common household items in the Dutch Republic during the early 17th century and were generally used for beer. In taverns, beer would have been decanted into large communal tankards placed on tables so that drinkers could easily refill their glasses; at home, tankards might be personalized and adorned with monograms. Wealthier clientele preferred tankards made of more expensive and exotic materials — such as Chinese porcelain — as a means of displaying their wealth, status, and sophistication. Modeled after Dutch prototypes but made of porcelain and decorated in China, tankards such as these were specifically made for savvy European patrons. “It was a luxury item. It was definitely the [Hermès] ‘Kelly Bag’ of its age, so to speak,” explains Vanderven Oriental Art historian Nynke van der Ven - van Wyngaarden. “It was the most fancy, exotic, luxurious item — Chinese porcelain.”

The decorative painting on these tankards is rendered in “High Transition” style in underglaze blue, and the silver embellishments (known as snelle) were added upon arrival in Europe. Several porcelain tankards were created with a small hole at the top of the loop handle so that lids and handles could be fitted with a metal mount after the Dutch East India Company (VOC) had completed the arduous journey from Batavia (present-day Jakarta) back to Amsterdam. The Dutch East India Company began placing orders for such tankards (which were known as snelletje or snelleken) from China as of around 1635. Shortly thereafter, Chinese porcelain tankards and other Chinese export porcelain pieces began featuring in Dutch Golden Age still lifes, nestled among similarly extravagant items — a testament to their prized status.

In light of the cultural duality inherent in the tankards themselves, it was a full circle moment when the GuWei Museum in Hong Kong acquired them — a return to the source for objects commissioned in Holland, made in China, sold in Europe, and now part of a collection in Hong Kong. At the GuWei Museum, where both tankards are now exhibited, they are accessible to audiences able to discern and understand things that were likely misunderstood by their various Dutch owners over the years. The tankards are also expected to be part of a special showcase of 130 tankards and mugs at the museum, slated for September 2026, in addition to the 222 tankards which are part of the permanent collection display. “The decoration is a recognizable Chinese story, but having been placed on export porcelain, the significance of that would have been entirely lost on the recipient here in the Netherlands,” notes Van der Ven - van Wyngaarden. “A Chinese person looking at it would have seen something entirely different than we’re seeing here.”

One of the tankards, for instance, depicts a servant handing a vase with halberds to a scholar. It illustrates a Chinese saying: Ping sheng san ji (literally, “growing three halberds out of a vase”) which signifies an unexpected promotion of three ranks in the hierarchy of Mandarins. The words “hal- berd” and “rank” are both pronounced ji in Chinese, a nuance that could easily be lost in translation. Overall, the Mandarin scene was symbolic of wishing someone a successful career. “The tankards tell a compelling story of cultural exchange,” adds Ngai. “Having assembled an impressive collection of the mugs, we are committed to further expanding it with the aim of establishing one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of this kind.”