Plate

Glazed porcelain dish painted in intense cobalt blue, showing a peninsular shield with the coat of arms of the Coelhos in the centre. The coat of arms has been attributed to António de Albuquerque Coelho de Carvalho, a nobleman of the Royal Household who held several important positions in Brazil, namely governor of the Capitanias of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais, and was later governor of Angola, where he died in 1725. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that it was commissioned by his illegitimate son António de Albuquerque Coelho, who made a career in the Far East, first as squire of the Royal Household serving as Lieutenant of Sea and War and Infantry Captain from 1700 to 1708 in Goa, then Captain of Sea and War and Infantry Captain in Macao from 1708 to 1716, where he was also Captain General and Governor from 1718 to 1719. From 1722 to 1725 he was Governor of Solor and Timor, in 1719 Governor and Captain General of the kingdom of Pate (near Mombasa), and in 1739 Commander in Mormugão (Goa).
Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos in the catalogue Presença Portuguesa na Ásia, Museu do Oriente, 2008, p. 166-168