the symbol for ‘thousand’, normally
indicative of ‘one thousand reis’. It was
initially represented with a crossed U but in
the eighteenth century it took the form of a
horizontal eight, which would later be
transformed into the currency symbol ($).
The fourth letter is an O with a ‘~’ (tilde)
used on nasal diphthongs and has the shape
of a cursive 6. Finally, the last word, that has
been read as
sete
[seven], is
&itc
, that is,
‘etcetera’. The first symbol is
&
, and stands
for the Latin word
et
[and], and not S, since
this letter only appears in more recent times.
The other letters are clear,
itc
, and the ‘i’s, ‘t’s
and ‘c’s are exactly the same as all the other
‘i’s, ‘t’s and ‘c’s. By comparison with the other
‘e’s on the plate, it is clear that ‘e’ wasn’t
used. Where the word
barro
was read in the
past, it should be read
parro
, since what one
sees there is an upper case ‘P’.
Given the fact that Parro is an unusual
surname of Portuguese origin which appears
more frequently in Brazil, namely in the state
of Minas Gerais, and that
unicorn
is a name
used since the eighteenth century for the
Horned Screamer bird (scientific name:
Anhima cornuta
), whose horn was used in
traditional medicine to treat snake bites, and
which is a bird that still exists in the
Brazilian Amazon states of Mato Grosso and
Goiás, where it is still called unicorn, 3 there
appears to be a link to eighteenth-century
Brazil.
Although the conventional interpretation has
been challenged, the riddle remains, given
the difference between the central
decoration and the inscription, and the
abbreviation of ‘etc.’ João Miguel Simões
believes that we are dealing with an
anagram, in other words,
Parro He outro
Oinicornio
(Parro is another unicorn) hides
another phrase with exactly the same letters,
not adding or taking away any, for example
Rico Rei no oiro. Ho prato Nu
[King Rich in
gold. Empty plate].
Since the decoration displays two infantry
soldiers standing either side of a mortar-like
vessel, so-called dragoons, who were
responsible in Brazil for collecting taxes and
gold and escorting them back to Portugal,
the author believes that this phrase could
mean that Brazilians, discontent with the
heavy taxation in gold to which they were
subjected by the Portuguese crown,
complained about having empty plates and
not enough to eat. This would explain the
presence of the dragoons, the vessel for
collection in the centre, and the 11 thousand
ounces mentioned in the inscription
(approximately 21.5
arrobas
, each
arroba
equivalent to 15 kg), since gold was
measured in ounces. Therefore, this
decoration could have connotations of the
the Derrama tax was imposed, whereby
Brazilians were obliged to contribute from
their own pocket in order to make up the
100 arrobas of gold per year. This discontent
resulted in the 1789 uprising known as the
Inconfidência Mineira
led by Tiradentes.
This theory introduces the possibility that
the order could have been placed by
someone whose surname was Parro, from
Minas Gerais in Brazil, in the last quarter of
the eighteenth century, perhaps to show his
discontent with the excessive fiscal burden
imposed on the Brazilian people by Portugal.
As with many other export porcelain dinner
services, the initials PFV have not been
identified. As is often the case, lack of
documentation has given rise to numerous
theories, and this decoration is no exception,
having given rise to various interpretations.
This service is traditionally known as the
Meninos de Palhavã
[The Boys from Palhavã]
service, which was the nickname of three of
the illegitimate sons of King John V: D. José
de Bragança, the son of Mother Paula,
D. Gaspar de Bragança, the son of D. Madalena
Máxima de Miranda, and who later became
the Archbishop of Braga, and D. António de
Bragança, the son of a French lady. They were
all supposed to have been brought up in the
palace of Palhavã on the outskirts of Lisbon,
but in actual fact they only resided in this
palace occasionally, since they were educated
in the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra. 4
Some authors believe that the initials PFV or
JFV are those of Paulo Fernandes Viana,
father of Paulo Fernandes Carneiro Viana, the
1st Baron of St. Simão, 5 though this
attribution lacks foundation.
On the other hand, Nuno de Castro refutes
the above theories and maintains that this
service was ordered to commemorate the
tenth anniversary of the
Real Colégio dos
Nobres de Lisboa
[Royal College of Noblemen
of Lisbon], a school set up to educate
Portuguese noblemen, inaugurated on 19
March 1766, but closed on 4 January 1838,
after which its students went to the Military
School. The author bases his opinion on the
following facts: the two young men in
military uniform allude to the traditional
military education that noblemen received at
the time; the date 1776 displayed in the
inscription on all the pieces; the vessel or
mortar suggesting the colleges’ experimental
physics laboratory where analysis and
experiments were done with cobalt oxide,
asbolite, thus explaining the use of the
mortar, and the word ‘Unicorn’, which in the
eighteenth century was synonymous with
‘Purity of Mineral Rock’; the initials read as
PFV possibly mean
Padroeira Fidelíssima
Virgem
[Most Faithful Virgin Patroness] in
tribute to Our Lady of the Conception,
António José de Vasconcelos e Sousa da
Câmara Caminha Faro e Veiga, second son of
the 1st Marquis of Castelo Melhor, and
director and inspector of the Royal College
of Noblemen; the phrase 1776 SETE BARRO
HE OUTRO OUNICORNIO could refer to the
kaolin that was sent from Portugal in 1775 to
manufacture this order, produced in the
colleges’ laboratory, one of the best
laboratories for experimental physics in
Europe. 6
However, the theory that Portuguese kaolin
was used to produce this service is
countered by the fact that it was only after
1832, on the initiative of José Ferreira Pinto
Basto, that this raw material was used in the
production of Portuguese porcelain at the
factory of Vista Alegre, the oldest factory to
produce porcelain in Portugal, which in that
year started to have kaolin ‘available, close
and in good conditions’ which was
‘indispensible for regular production and ...
directed toward competitive production of
Portuguese porcelain…’. 7
All the above-mentioned theories have
recently been challenged by João Alarcão and
Jorge Brito e Abreu, who presented yet
another possibility, but which also lacks
supporting documentation. According to
these authors, the soldiers standing beside
the mortar in the decoration represent a
military institution whose importance is
stressed by the royal crown. They believe
that the initials could be interpreted as RFP,
those of the Real Fábrica da Pólvora [Royal
Gunpowder Factory], the mortar being the
vessel where the ingredients used to make
gunpowder were crushed and mixed. The
inscription could be an allusion to the
reconstruction of the Royal Factory which
was destroyed by fire in 1774, and to the
new firepower of the military that was re-
emerging. 8 However, the dates do not match
the date in the inscriptions, as the factory
was not re-opened until 1802.
There are pieces from this service in several
Portuguese collections, namely a tureen and
stand in the Fundação Medeiros e Almeida,
Lisbon, 9 a tureen minus the lid in the
Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva,
Lisbon, 10 and some others in the Museu
Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon.
1 Heraldic description by MLCB.
2 Description by João Miguel Simões, whom we thank
for the new theory presented.
3 http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhuma, 7/20/2009.
4 Zúquete, 1960, vol. I, p. 560.
5 Idem, 1961, vol. III, pp. 345 and 711.
6 Castro, 1987, p. 150.
7 Macedo, 1989, p. 28.
8 Branco and Abreu, in Antunes, 1999, pp. 164-65.
9 Castro, ibid., p. 149; Pinto de Matos
et al.
, 1992, p. 184,
no. 89.
10 Antunes, ibid., p. 56.
114 .
ARMORIAL CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN