Armorial china: part 2

Newhailes: An everyday armorial service

At Newhailes House, a Palladian country house near Edinburgh, there is a partial 17-piece armorial table service with the arms of Dalrymple of Hailes, made around 1775. The coat of arms and pattern is painted entirely under the glaze in cobalt blue. This economical decoration required just one firing and was often ordered as everyday tableware. Several of the shapes are associated with the Swedish market.

The discrete fleur-de-lis at the top of the shield indicates it belonged to a sixth son, who was William Dalrymple (c1739–76). William was the youngest son of Sir James Dalrymple of Hailes, 2nd Baronet (1692–1751), and he worked for the East India Company. In a letter to his sisters written from Canton on 6 January 1774, William wrote: ‘I am sorry the Patern [sic] plate you said was sent never got to my hand as I could easily have got what you want for next shipping but now it will probably be a year longer however I cannot say til I see them perhaps they may be matchd if they are not very uncommon.’ [1]

Armorial services could take up to two years to deliver. The service may have arrived in London by March 1777, as we have a record stating ‘at the India House [the Company’s warehouse] for a lot of table china from Mr W. D’. William never saw the service as he died in Madras in 1776.

Brodie Castle: armorials of a rogue heir

At Brodie Castle in Moray, there are elements from four armorial services with the arms of Brodie of that Ilk, made between 1775 and 1805. Extremely wealthy East India Company directors owned many armorial services, but at the time the Brodies were suffering financially and were unlikely to have ordered them. The debts of the 19th Laird were inherited by his cousin, James Brodie, 21st Laird (1744–1824), who was forced to auction property as well as sell land to his brother-in-law, the 2nd Earl of Fife. His wife died in a fire in 1786.

To revive their fortunes, James’s heir (also James) followed in the footsteps of James’s younger brother, a rich nabob called Alexander Brodie (1748–1818). Alexander had worked for the Company in Madras before returning to Scotland, buying an estate and becoming a Scottish MP. In 1790, the younger James Brodie (1768–1801) arrived in Madras and rose to become a senior merchant in the civil service. Around 1799, he had to resign for illegal private trading. In 1801, he drowned in India, just a year after his brother William Douglas Brodie (1769–1826) arrived.

Three of the armorial services, made around 1800–05, were clearly ordered by the same individual as they share identical heraldic errors: the red chevron in the shield is incorrectly painted black, while the stars are gold rather than blue. The largest and most complete service is the richly gilded, underglaze blue painted ‘FitzHugh’ pattern, named after a director of the East India Company, Thomas Fitzhugh (d. 1799). The shapes were inspired by fashionable Wedgwood models, and the family motto ‘Unite’ is sometimes incorrectly spelled as ‘Untie’. The cost of this service would have been beyond the income of a senior Company merchant.

Also at Brodie Castle is a rare set of Chinese porcelain flower pots, painted in blue and gold with the cipher ‘EB’, dating from 1795–1805. The cipher belongs to the wife of Alexander Brodie, Elisabeth, née Wemyss (1748–1800), a niece of the 6th Earl of Wemyss. Their daughter, also Elizabeth (1794–1864), married the last (5th) Duke of Gordon. Upon her death, her family heirlooms were sent to Brodie Castle, which is probably how the three armorial services and the flower pots arrived at the castle, presumably all ordered by her father.

Until the 1800s, the Scottish gentry, especially those with sons in India, frequently ordered porcelain from China decorated with their coats of arms, as there was no significant luxury ceramic industry in Scotland. This material evidence of the many networks of commercial and political influence came to an end when the English East India Company lost its monopoly on trade with China in 1833.

[1] Manuscript held by the National Library of Scotland, MSS.25286, f.18

Patricia Ferguson is a ceramic specialist with an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. She has worked in London at the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum, and as Honorary Adviser on Ceramics to the National Trust (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). She published Ceramics: 400 Years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces in 2016.

Read Armorial china: part 1

For more details on the National Trust for Scotland’s ceramics collections surveyed by Patricia F Ferguson, read our Survey of Asian Ceramics.