Chinese plates fit for an Acehnese queen

Abstract

ABSTRACT All over Southeast Asia is found a particular type of coarse Chinese export porcelain traditionally known as ‘Swatow’ ware but now more accurately identified as originating from Zhangzhou, dating from the late Ming period, from the end of the 16th to the early 17th centuries. One characteristic type of large Zhangzhou dish had a central circle with eight smaller circles around it, all filled with inscriptions in Arabic script. The marked visual similarity with the great seal of Aceh, which over a period of 250 years always gave the name of the sovereign in a central circle surrounded by eight small circles containing the names of illustrious forebears, gave rise to the tradition that these Zhangzhou calligraphic plates were specially ordered from China by the rulers of Aceh in the shape of their seal. A close chronological examination belies this widely held belief, as the Zhangzhou plates were largely produced before the Acehnese ‘ninefold seal’ was created in the mid 17th century, most likely in the reign of Sultanah Tajul Alam Safiatuddin Syah (r.1641–1675). Indeed, conversely, the presence of these prestigious and striking Chinese plates in Aceh may even have contributed to the rich visual repertoire of significant ninefold forms from which the royal Acehnese seal was born.