Linnaeus’ tea cup

Abstract

In 18th-century Sweden, Chinese porcelain, and in particular armorial services, became one of the most desirable material markers of the social status of the elite and was consciously used to promote dynastic or personal power and aspirations. This article discusses social, affective and gendered relations that developed around acquisition, ordering and display of armorial porcelain and the resulting nexus between porcelain traded by the Swedish East India Company and processes of cultural and gendered identity-making of the male Swedish elite. This paper alludes to 18th-century male anxieties about the gender order in relation to Chinese objects (such as porcelain) and also Chinese subjects (such as the visiting Chinese merchant Afock).

Keywords:

• emotions
• gender
• masculinity
• material culture
• porcelain
• Swedish East India Company
• early modern Sweden
• China

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted with the support of the Australian Research Council Centre of excellence for the History of Emotions (project number CE 110001011).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The by now classic publication by Appadurai, ed., The Social Life of Things, is still a productive starting point, especially the essay by Kopytoff, ‘The Cultural Biography of Things’, 64–9. Stacey Pierson has convincingly demonstrated how porcelain of the Ming Dynasty can be understood as objects with cultural biographies: see Pierson, From Object to Concept.

2 Thomas, Entangled Objects.

3 Thoen, Strategic Affection?

4 Shamy, ‘Frederick the Great’s Porcelain Diversion’, 21.

5 Most provocatively argued by Bennett, Vibrant Matter, and in social anthropology by Miller, Stuff. For more historical studies, see Harvey, ed., History and Material Culture; Perry, ed., Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms. For a discussion of feminism and New Materialism, see Ahmed, ‘Some Preliminary Remarks on the Founding Gestures of the New Materialism’, 23–39.

6 Berg and Clifford, eds, Consumers and Luxury. For Scandinavia more specifically, see, for example, Ahlberger, Konsumtionsrevolutionen; Müller, ‘Kolonialprodukter i Sveriges handel och konsumtionskultur, 1700–1900’, 2–14; Müller, ‘The Swedish East India Trade and International Markets’, 28–44, Ilmakunnas, ‘Adelsdamen som konsument på 1700-talet’, 116–34; Andersson, Stadens dignitärer; Hutchison, ‘Bites, Nibbles, Sips and Puff’, 156–85. For an interdisciplinary approach on material culture in Scandinavia, see also Forssgren and Sennefelt, eds, Fråga föremålen; and on material culture and Swedish colonial encounters, see Nordin, ‘There and Back Again’, 207–25.

7 Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Porcelain and Prestige’, 3.

8 Cavanaugh and Yonan, ‘Introduction’, 3.

9 Cavanaugh and Yonan, ‘Introduction’, 12.

10 Wallenberg, Samlade Skrifter. English translation cited in Rose, ‘The Funny Business of the Swedish East India Company’, 217–32. On Wallenberg, see also Sjöberg, ‘Jacob Wallenberg i Sydafrika- ett sanningsvittne?’, 57–75.

11 See for example McClintock, Imperial Leather.

12 Carter, ‘Men about Town’, 31–57. The link between gender anxieties and luxury consumption in 18th-century Sweden is specifically discussed in Jansson, ‘When Sweden Harboured Idlers’, 249–72.

13 Existing studies on women and porcelain tend to situate both in the context of gendered consumption trends of luxury goods of the 18th century, or in a literary and intellectual context. See, for example, Kowaleski-Wallace, ‘Women, China, and Consumer Culture in Eighteenth-Century England’, 153–67; Sloboda, ‘Porcelain Bodies’, 19–36; Sloboda, ‘Displaying Materials’, 455–72.

14 See, for a detailed discussion, Müller, ‘Scottish and Irish Entrepreneurs in Eighteenth-Century Sweden’, 147–74. For older and more general accounts of the Swedish East India Company, see Kjellberg, Svenska Ostindiska Compagnierna, 1731–1813; Lagercrantz, ‘I Ostindiska kompaniets tjänst’, 137–52. More explicitly on gender and the Swedish East India Company, see Hellman, ‘Using China at Home’, 35–55.

15 Fängsmyr, Ostinidiska kompaniet. Människor, äventyret och den ekonomiska drömmen, 26.

16 Söderpalm, ‘Ostindiska Kompaniet’, 275.

17 Söderpalm, ‘Ostinidiska Kompaniet’, 276.

18 Söderpalm, ‘Ostinidiska Kompaniet’, 242.

19 Campbell, A Passage to China, 104.

20 All European colonial powers imported porcelain from China: see, for example, Jörg, Porcelain and the Dutch China Trade; Kee II Choi, Jnr, ‘Painting and Porcelain’; Van Dyke and Vialle, The Canton–Macao Dagregisters, 1762; Van Dyke, The Canton Trade. For a discussion of Jingdezhen as an important and innovative location for global ceramic production, see Gerritsen, ‘Ceramics for Local and Global Markets’, 164–86; Gerritsen, ‘Global Design in Jingdezhen’, 25–33.

21 Haneda, Asian Port Cities, 1600–1800.

22 Yong, ‘The Commercial Culture of the VOC in Canton in the Eighteenth Century’, 43–62.

23 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 28–9.

24 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 27.

25 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 147.

26 For a detailed discussion of the porcelain at Drottingholm see Setterwall, Foglemarck and Gyllensvärd, The Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm, 159–81.

27 Koninckx, First and Second Charters of the Swedish East Company, 216–24.

28 Ostindiska Kompaniet dokumenter och personer, Brevkopierbok för skeppet ‘Hoppet’, 46. Available at: <http://www.ub.gu.se/samlingar/handskrift/ostindie/bildvisning/djvu.xml?id=23&doc=23&page=1>.

29 Ostindiska Kompaniet dokumenter och personer, Brevkopierbok för skeppet ‘Hoppet’, 76. Available at: <http://www.ub.gu.se/samlingar/handskrift/ostindie/bildvisning/djvu.xml?id=23&doc=23&page=1>.

30 Ostindiska Kompaniet dokumenter och personer, Brevkopierbok för skeppet ‘Hoppet’, 81. Available at: <http://www.ub.gu.se/samlingar/handskrift/ostindie/bildvisning/djvu.xml?id=23&doc=23&page=1>.

31 Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Porcelain and Prestige’.

32 Söderpalm, ‘Beställningsporslin från Kina’, 168–83.

33 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 121.

34 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 149.

35 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 151–4.

36 This has been recently argued for diplomatic gifts by Auwers, ‘The Gift of Rubens’, 421–41; Jansson, ‘Measured Reciprocity’, 348–70.

37 So, for example, the porcelain plate by Magnus Frederik Brahe (1756–1826) on the occasion of his marriage to Ulrika C. Koskull in 1779, Skoklosters slot.

38 See Lagercrantz, ‘Släkten Grills vapenporslin’, 87–110.

39 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 127.

40 ‘Ma tres chere Cousine, Jar har fått ett bref aff en man i Stockholm, some hade commersion att tillbiuda mig köpa ett sten porslin Service med Grillska wapen bestående aff 18 dousin flata och Diugo, 40 fat store och mundre, 16 Carotter [?], 8 Sausskålar, 4 Terrinen […]’, Nordiska Museet, Godegårdsarkiv.

41 Anna Johanna (III) Grill, boupteckning avseende ‘Landet’, GÖBA (382–2h). Part of this porcelain service is now held by Nordiska Museet: ‘En Ostindisk, brokig Bords- och Thé Service med Tranan, bestående af 4 runda Terriner med 3 lock, 28 diverse Fat, 43 diverse Assietter, 45 djupa, 8 större och 12 dussin vanliga flata Tallrickar, 2 Sauce Skålar, 8 Saltkar, 1 Punschbål, 2 Thé- kannor, 2 Choklad kannor, 1 Mjölk-kanna utan lock, 2 Mjölk-kannor med lock, 2 Thé-dosor den ena med lock, 12 par Thékoppar med 19 fat, 10 större Caffékoppar med 9 fat, 10 små ditto utan fat, 2 Mandarinkoppar med fat och lock, 1 Spilkum, 12 små Tallrikar, 29 Knifvar med Porcelainskaft och 12 lösa skaft’.

42 This relationship has been widely discussed: see, in particular, Nyberg, ‘Linnaeus’ Apostles, Scientific Travel and the East India Trade’, 7–16.

43 There exists a huge travel literature by Linnaeus’ disciples: see, for example, Torén, En Ostindisk Resa.

44 Osbeck, Dagbok Öfver En Ostindisk Resa Åren 1750, 1751, 1752.

45 Summary of letter from Pehr Osbeck to Linnaeus, 11/18 July 1752. Available at: <http://linnaeus.c18.net/Letters/display_letter.php?id=L5313>.

46 For a discussion of male drinking rituals as an important part of male political sociability in 18th-century Stockholm, see Sennefelt, ‘Masculinity, Sociability and Citizenship in Stockholm in the Age of Liberty’, 317–27, especially 320–1.

47 Eldh, Punsch.

48 Söderpalm, ‘Ostinidiska Kompaniet’, 284.

49 Söderpalm, ‘Ostinidiska Kompaniet’, 285.

50 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 190.

51 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 190.

52 For a discussion of male shaming in Sweden, see Liliequist, ‘Från niding till sprätt’.

53 Wirgin, Från Kina till Europa, 210–9. See also Frykenstedt, Jean Jacques och Aurora Taube de Geer.

54 See Wirgin, ‘Afock, the First Chinese to Visit Sweden’, 66.

55 November 13 [1786]: ‘Ankom till staden en kinesisk handlande, Afock kallad, hvilken följt till Europa med svenske superkargören vid ostindiska Kompaniet Lindahl. Någon kines hade fore aldrig varit i Sverige. Han uppväckte allas nyfikenhet och förundran. Han var hyggelig och superade flera ganger hos härtiginnan samt prinsessan. Han erhöll små presenter och afreste ej långt därefter åter till Kanton med de ostindiska skeppen.’ Hochschild, Memoarer, 1: 101.

56 Frykenstedt, Jean Jacques och Aurora Taube de Geer, 365. Afock’s visit was reported in the newspaper Upfostrings-Sällskapets Tidningar in December 1786.

57 There exists a so-called mirror portrait of the Chinese merchant at Canton, Phuankhequa, c. 1780, which hangs in the Swedish East India Company Headquarters and is today displayed at Gothenburg Stadsmuseum. Söderpalm, ed., Affärer och föremål, 22.

58 In 1769, at just 16 years old, she was married to Jean Jacques de Geer, who was twice her age. She always kept her maiden name and was known under that name. She also signed her letters with it. She inherited a great deal from her family. Frykenstedt, Jean Jacques och Aurora Taube de Geer, 251–8.

59 Frykenstedt, Jean Jacques och Aurora Taube de Geer, 364–5.

60 Sedgwick, Between Men. I wish to thank the anonymous reviewer of this article for this reference.

61 [Anonym.], Characters and Anecdotes of the Court of Sweden, 1: 161–2.

62 Yang, Performing China.

63 Nationalmuseum Stockholm, http://emp-web-22.zetcom.ch/eMuseumPlus?service=RedirectService&sp=Scollection&sp=SfieldValue&sp=0&sp=0&sp=3&sp=Slightbox_3x4&sp=0&sp=Sdetail&sp=0&sp=F

64 Letter from J.J. de Geer to Martin, 14 January 1788. Holger Frykenstedt archival collection, KB Stockholm, ACC1989_42.

65 Porter, ‘Chinoiserie and the Aesthetics of Illegitimacy’, 27–54. See also Porter, Chinese Taste.

66 On the key role of Chinese merchants and their networks in Canton, see Van Dyke, Merchants of Canton and Macao; and Cheong, The Hong Merchants of Canton. For a discussion of the aforementioned merchant Phuankhequa, see 159–70.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jacqueline Van Gent

Jacqueline Van Gent is an early modern historian at The University of Western Australia and Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (1100–1800). She has published on early modern religion, gender, colonial mission encounters, and early modern emotions. Her publications include Magic, Body and the Self in Eighteenth-Century Sweden (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2009); Governing Masculinities in the Early Modern Period: Regulating Selves and Others (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011) (edited with S. Broomhall); Gender and Conversion Narratives in the Nineteenth Century: German Mission at Home and Abroad (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015) (co-authored with A. Schaser and K. Rüther); The Indigenous Christian Evangelist in British Empire History, 1750–1940: Questions of Authority (Leiden: Brill, 2015) (co-authored with N. Etherington, P. Brock and G. Griffiths) and ‘Emotions and Conversion’, Special Issue, Journal of Religious History 39, no. 4 (2015) (co-edited with S. Young).