Main image: Polychrome plaque, Delft, circa 1740-1760, Aronson Collection (inv. no. D0731) Since Chinese porcelain entered the Dutch market around 1600, it captured people’s imagination and laid the foundation for Delft faience. One of the most fascinating aspects of this cultural exchange is the transformation of Chinese motifs, often associated with deep symbolic meanings, into…
Every month we present a special object from the Aronson Antiquairs’ collection. This month we would like to show you this beautiful blue and white cuspidor, which was made in the city of Delft around 1750. The word ‘cuspidor’ (kwispedoor) comes from the same word in Portuguese: cuspidouro, meaning ‘place for spitting’ and has its…
Main image: Set of Four Blue and White Armorial Tobacco Jars and Brass Cover, Delft, c.1820, Aronson Collection (inv. no. D1368) Tobacco has served as a medicinal, comforting, stimulating, and religious substance. Upon their arrival in the Americas in 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew noted that Indigenous peoples were using what they described as…
Every month we present a special object from the Aronson Antiquairs’ collection. This month we are delighted to share with you a pair of butter tubs with covers and stands, executed in polychrome petit feu and enriched with gilding, dating from circa 1760. Each octagonal tub is painted in the vibrant Kakiemon palette with birds…
Main image: View on the Dutch trade base on Deshima, circa 1890, Leiden University Libraries (shelf no. KITLV 36D536) Since 2006, CAMERA JAPAN has been an annual celebration of Japanese culture, taking place each autumn in Rotterdam. This year, the festival runs from September 24–28. While rooted in contemporary Japanese cinema, its scope extends far…
Main image: Blue and White Rectangular Marine Plaque, Delft, circa 1660, former Aronson Collection (inv. no. 25045) Since 1975, organized to celebrate the 700 anniversary of Amsterdam, every five years, the waters of Amsterdam’s IJ transform into a sea of masts, sails, and maritime stories during SAIL Amsterdam—one of the largest nautical events in the…
Every month we present a special object from the Aronson Antiquairs’ collection. This month we would like to show you this figurative group modeled as two gentlemen sitting at either end of a rowing boat, painted in yellow, iron-red and manganese, one holding two large wooden oars and wearing a manganese hat, a yellow-cuffed iron-red…
Models and Molds Today, the variety of forms in ceramics seems virtually limitless, especially with the aid of modern technologies like 3D printing. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, crafting ceramic objects that could not be thrown on a potter’s wheel demanded the expertise of a specialist known as the vormer (molder). This craftsman…
Every month we present a special object from the Aronson Antiquairs’ collection. This month we would like to show you this pair of blue and white Budai Heshang flower holders. Among the more whimsical yet deeply meaningful forms in early eighteenth-century Dutch Delftware are figural vessels that blend sculptural ingenuity with symbolic resonance. A particularly…
An obelisk is a four-sided, tapering monolithic pillar that ascends with majestic precision, culminating in a pyramidion—a small, pointed pyramid at its peak. Originating in ancient Egypt, these towering forms have long captivated the imagination for their awe-inspiring height and celestial symbolism, earning them the moniker “skyscrapers of the past.”(1) Their impressive presence has fascinated…
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