Batavia brown

A decorative style within Chinese export porcelain using a surface covering brown glaze with or without panels in conjunction with underglaze blue or enamels. The wares were named after the Dutch East India Company trading center in South East Asia Batavia (modern Jakarta), and seems to have been particularly popular with the Dutch. Wares with this decoration were produced for export throughout the first half of the 18th century and included rounded dishes, vases, tea pots, tea bowls, saucers, lidded jars and other useful wares. The style was preceded by a similar in light Celadon green, with or without combinations of under-glaze blue, appearing c.1660-80 in both Japanese Arita wares and in Chinese porcelain. As one of the earliest examples of 'Batavian' style iron brown glazes with wucai style enamles within panels, is a square Japanese Arita ware bowl dated 1699.

The foundered East Indiaman Gotheborg (1745) was found to have a significant proportion of Batavia style decorated porcelain in its cargo which proves it was not entirely intended for the Dutch market. The decoration seems to have been revived during the early 19th century primarily on wares intended for export to South East Asia.

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© Jan-Erik Nilsson, Gothenburg, Sweden 1998-2007