Stop 5.0 - Batavia Silver: Silver Plate
Abraham van der Plaetsen, Plate, 1628, silver, diameter 34 cm, Western Australia Museum, Perth, BAT3432.
Before Francisco Pelsaert became Commander of the Batavia, he worked for the Dutch East India Company in India. Near the end of his stay there, Pelsaert wrote a commercial report in which he not only described the economy and administration under Mughal rule, but also paid attention to local customs. In this report, Pelsaert sharply criticises the strong divide between the “poor wretches” on the lower end of the social ladder and the rich, who revel in their wealth. At the same time, Pelsaert is keen to point out to the directors how they might increase their profits in India. According to Pelsaert, many of the local noblemen express surprise that – instead of importing silver and gold coins – the Company won't manufacture articles that are in common use in India. He therefore proposes the production of artistically wrought bedsteads, pitchers, handles for fans and fly swats, as well as dishes and cups – all made from gold and silver – in order to increase profits. Following Pelsaert's advice, the Company had these goods made in Amsterdam and shipped them on board the Batavia.
This heavily damaged silver plate is one of the trade goods salvaged from the Batavia wreck. The plate is decorated around the rim with three beautiful Renaissance cartouches depicting hunting scenes. Even though Islamic law prohibited pleasure hunting, Jahangir, the Mughal emperor for whose court this silver was designed, was a passionate hunter. In his own memoirs he boasted to have shot 17,167 animals during his life, among which 86 lions. The Amsterdam silversmith, however, decorated the plate with typical European hunting scenes - a bear and stag hunt and a fishing scene - which he based on a series of Flemish prints. In an attempt to give these scenes a more ‘Indian' appearance, the craftsman decided to show one of the hunters in what he imagined was a more oriental appearance, dressing him in exotic attire and with a pointed hat. Ironically though, the hunter would have appeared as exotic to the Indians as he would have looked to the Dutch silversmith, because he looks nothing like a Mughal hunter.
