Celine

In Delft most factories produced both a high-end line of decorative objects and useful wares and a low-end selection of common utensils, which, ironically, are rarer today because they were used, worn out or damaged and then irreverently thrown away. What has survived today are generally the higher-end objects, in general more beautiful, more admired…

“Het volk redeloos, de regering radeloos en het land reddeloos” (The people were irrational; the government desperate and the country irretrievable), no this is not a recent quote, it is a phrase that was coined to describe the state of Holland in 1672. In Dutch history, the year 1672 has from that time to present been known as “Het Rampjaar”…

Birds occur frequently and for a variety of reasons in art, as symbols, decoration or objects of study. The symbolism of birds differs in different period and regions. Birds are often encountered in seventeenth-century Dutch genre scenes, in which they usually have a sexual connotation because the Dutch word ‘vogelen’ (birding) means to engage in…

Porcelain, lacquer and silk were among the most sought after exotic goods from China and Japan in far-away Europe. The attraction to these precious items was particularly strong among the courts during the era when trade flourished by land via the Silk Road or by sea. Early in the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India…

In the ceramics world, Gerrit Paape is renowned for his 1794 treatise De Plateelbakker of Delftsch Aardewerkmaaker (‘The Faience Potter or Maker of Delftware’). This publication, his sole work on Delftware, outlined many aspects of the eighteenth-century process of producing Delftware, making it an invaluable source of information about the industry. However, De Plateelbakker was…

The abundance of waterways in the Netherlands have served as a thriving transportation system for centuries. These waterways were the most important links between the various merchant cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Transport and storage companies were established along the quays, from where the ships set course for other cities.1 When Delft brewers…

Dutch Delftware thrived in the late seventeenth century under the patronage of Queen Mary II, who was passionate about Chinese blue and white porcelain and its local counterpart. The Delft factories also responded to the Queen’s love of gardens, and they developed the technical skills and virtuosity in the production of all sorts of ’vases…