Notes:
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands, and was part of the extensive maritime trade network established by the VOC during the 17th and 18th centuries. As such, its coat of arms was featured alongside those of other European regions and towns in a series of so-called 'province dishes' (provincieborden) manufactured in China during the early eighteenth century. It has been suggested that these dishes were ordered by private Dutch merchants operating in Southeast Asia rather than the VOC. While these dishes are very rare, a related example of the same design but with the arms of Amsterdam can be found in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (inv. AK-MAK-1733), on loan from the Royal Dutch Asian Art Society (KVVAK). A related series of armorial porcelain decorated with the arms of various Dutch provinces, along with arms from France and England, is discussed in C. Le Corbeiller, 'China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange', Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013, p. 38, no. 16. Two dishes belonging to this related series can also be found in the collection of the Rijksmuseum and are illustrated by CJA Jörg in 'Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam', Philip Wilson, 1997, p. 317, nos. 378 and 379.
