In-depth Articles

By around 1660 the fame of the Delft faience potters had spread far beyond the borders of the Dutch Republic. Delft earthenware was a prized possession of European monarchs. One such example is provided by the Delft dishes with coats of arms created for the court of the powerful French king Louis XIV. Under this…

In 1950 The Metropolitan Museum of Art received two earthenware plaques from R. Thornton Wilson (1886- 1977). These pieces were part of an important gift of European porcelain and faience collected by the donor specifically for the Museum. In fact, some of the best examples of Dutch Delftware in the Met’s holdings came from the…

The blue-and-white ceramic was long sought and loved worldwide, particularly since the introduction of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain in Europe in the fifteenth century. The arrival of Chinese porcelain triggered European potters to produce imitations of this unique Chinese product since the seventeenth century. In Delft, the imitation process first occurred in about 1620-1630 when a…

Located in the Boulogne hinterland, Desvres has been producing pottery since Gallo-Roman times. The town, which now has a population of 5,000, welcomed its first earthenware factory in 1764–65, before seeing the rise of industrial-scale production during the nineteenth century, which peaked in the following century. Its famous tiles cemented its reputation well beyond the…

A robust international trade network brought all types of exotic treasures to the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. The two major trading groups were the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch West India Company (WIC). These powerful entities discovered many treasures, commodities and delicacies from faraway lands that were uncommon at the time…

Delftware objects were commonly given as gifts to commemorate special occasions as early as the seventeenth century. During the reign of King William II and Queen Mary, Delftware objects were gifted to the nobility across Europe. The tradition continued even after the death of Mary in 1695, when King William gave many of the late…

The dinner table, as with all aspects of the decorative arts, is subject to changing fashions. As the structure of meals has evolved over time, the table settings and decoration have followed suit to complement the variations in each tradition. Beginning in the fifteenth century, a formal meal became increasingly divided into numerous courses. Typically,…

Despite the Portuguese importations of Asian goods starting in the early sixteenth century, Chinese porcelain was rarely seen in Europe before 1600. The small quantities of porcelain that were imported to Europe were rare and expensive, and almost exclusively collected by the nobility. In 1600, the market for Chinese porcelain changed significantly when the Dutch…

The extraordinary legacy behind the creation of the museum of Bailleul in 1859 is remarkably eclectic, while drawing on the identity of its collector, Benoît De Puydt. This collection testifies to a widespread phenomenon in nineteenth-century European bourgeois circles, and draws visitors into the world of a local personality. Born in the French commune of…

De Roos (The Rose) factory was built on the west side of Noordeinde street in Delft in 1661. A lease from 1662 offers an early glimpse of a well-run company in its infancy. The lease states that for example the tenant was obliged to maintain the kiln with certain tools and to take care of…