The Koopmans de Wet Museum
Located at 35, Strand Street, Cape Town, its name comes from its most famous inhabitant, Maria Koopmans de Wet (1834-1906).
The room with the cabinet containing the plates with the De Wit crest
The only two porcelain plates with the De Wit crest
A clearer look at one of the plates with the crest
Many thanks to Mike Rushby from Australia and his brother George from South Africa for their most kind assistance to obtain following photos - Dennis
Letter from The Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Extract of letter :
Subject: Armorial porcelain
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 10:25:43 +0200
From: Esther EsmyolDear Mr de Witt
Thank you very much for your letted dated 18 June 2002. My apologies for getting back to you at such a late stage.
Thank you also for your interest in Koopmans-De Wet House, now part of the Iziko Museums of Cape Town group of museums. It is indeed a special house with very special collections, in particular the small but fine collection of armorial porcelain.
And it is so exciting to correspond with a direct ancestor of John White a.k.a. Jan de Wit, the original owner of the De Wit armorial plates. Only two plates (accession number 821a,b) are left of what must have been an entire dinner service, made to order for Jan de Wit in China.
Herewith information from Caro Woodward's 1974 publication entitled Oriental Ceramics at the Cape of Good Hope 1652-1795:
'The De Wit plates must have been made near 1750, but it is not possible to date them as closely as the Arentz and Swellengrebel services. They carry the arms of John White, an Englishman who came to the Cape in 1700, married into a Dutch family and identified himself so closely with his new country that he chose to be known as Jan de Wit. He was prominent among the leading burghers at the Cape and was a Burgher Councillor on several occasions in the 1730's and 1740's. He was a wealthy landowner and continued to add to his property in old age. He died in his seventy-eight year in 1755.
The plates, two of which are in the Koopmans de Wet House, are decorated with the arms, generously mantled in gold and pale red, in the centre, and have as an inner-border the famous spear-head motif painted in gold and outlined in red. The rims are decorated in gold and black with three identical sprays of flowers, leaves and scroll-like tendrils in a style unmistakably influenced by the West; the central daisy in each spray is shaded with cross-hatching in European fashion, whilst the treatment of the tendrils is characteristically Chinese. Once again arms and borders form a harmonious but restricted palette of gold and black brightened by touches of red. Incidentally the red chevron, which adds colour to the shield, appears to be artistic licence as Pama gives the tincture as black.
The nature of the porcelain indicates that it was made for Jan de Wit towards the end of his life. The gold and red spear-head border was extremely popular and appears again and again on porcelain between c. 1740 - c. 1770. The flower sprays, half Western and half Oriental, support the evidence of the border and point to a date in the 1740's. All that can be said for certain is that these plates were made between 1740-1755, but it is possible that they are actually the earliest examples of armorial porcelain that we have in South Africa.'
Woodward also mentions that one or two other plates carrying the De Wit arms, exist in private collections.
Kind regards
Esther
Esther Esmyol
Collections Manager
Social History Division
Iziko Museums of Cape Town
tel. 021 460 8217
