Homenews

The National Museum of Ireland is divided into four branches: Archeology, Natural History, Country Life and Decorative Arts and History. Since 1997, the former military complex called Collins Barracks has been the site of the Decorative Arts and History Museum.

The Collins Barracks housed both British Armed Forces and Irish Army garrisons over three centuries. Built in 1702, and extended in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the complex’s main buildings are neoclassical in style. It was originally called The Barracks and later The Royal Barracks. Its name was changed in 1922 by the Irish Free Sate to its current name, in honor of Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary, soldier, and politician, who had been killed earlier that year. Collins Barracks has been completely renovated and restored to become the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History, charting Ireland’s economic, social, political and military progress through the ages.

The collection includes furniture, silver, ceramics and glassware, but also examples of folk life, costumes and weapons. The ceramics collection mainly consists of ceramics originally collected to influence local ceramic industries and to illustrate the evolution of fine ceramics. It comprises continental European and British porcelain, Italian Maiolica, French faience, Hispano-Moresque ware and Dutch Delftware. The Dutch Delftware collection is particularly important in an Irish context, as its imitation of the Chinese decorative repertoire would later be repeated during the eighteenth century in Ireland. It includes vases and jars, but also a plate, tobacco jar, a cream pot, and a sleigh. The collection also holds several jugs, for example a blue and white one marked D4, which is painted with a snarling dragon amidst a profusion of flowering branches. This Chinese dragon pattern was taken from a Kangxi Period Chinese design, and was used on Dutch Delftware as early as the late seventeenth century and continued in popularity for many years.

The Gardiner Museum is Canada’s national museum of ceramics. It is one of a small number of specialized museums of ceramics in the world. The museum was established by George and Helen Gardiner in Toronto in 1984. The Gardiners started their ceramics collection in the mid-1970s with pre-colonial pottery from the Americas and Meissen porcelain. Eventually, the collection grew to include Italian maiolica, English Delftware, and European porcelain. In the early 1980s, the Gardiners wished to exhibit their collection at the Royal Ontario Museum, but faced complications that eventually led them to open their own institution.

The Gardiner Museum contains over 4,000 objects from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The holdings highlight important developments in the history of European earthenware, including tin-glazed earthenware, English slipware, and creamware. Although the institution is primarily a ceramics museum, the permanent collection also includes a number of non-ceramic pieces that directly relate to the ceramic pieces in the collection.

The collection is divided into two principal areas: porcelain and earthenware. The museums’ porcelain collection primarily focuses on European porcelain, whereas its earthenware collection is primarily made up of ceramics from pre-colonial Americas, Italian maiolica, and Delftware. The majority of the Delftware collection is formed by English Delftware, but the museum also holds several Dutch Delftware objects. From Kraak-style chargers, to polychrome plates and even a so-called Jan Steen jug. These blue and white ovoid jugs, from circa 1640, are depicted on the paintings Het Oesteretertje (Girl Eating Oysters) and Het Doktersbezoek (The Doctor’s Visit) by Jan Steen. Another interesting object is a red stoneware figure of a harlequin, which was made at De Metaale Pot (The Metal Pot) factory around 1710.

The Palais des Beaux-Arts is located in the city of Lille in northern France. It was one of the first museums built in France, established under Napoleon I at the beginning of the nineteenth century as part of the popularization of art. An 1801 decree designated fifteen French cities, including Lille, to receive works taken from the collections of the Louvre and Versailles, “after a gallery suitable for receiving them will have been arranged, at the municipality’s expense”. The collections were also seized from churches and territories occupied by armies of Revolutionary France. The museum in Lille then contained 46 paintings.

The museum opened in 1809 and was initially housed in a church before being transferred to the city’s town hall. When the town hall became too small to house the collection, a larger premises was needed, however the city did not have adequate funds to finance a building project. To raise money, the mayor held a lottery: five million tickets, to be sold for one franc each, were printed to finance the project. Unfortunately, the tickets did not sell well and the lottery was a failure. Only slightly more than half of the expected total was raised. Nevertheless, the construction of the museum began, but was halted when money ran out. As a result, the final museum, opened in 1892, was only half of the initial design.

Despite the reduced size, the Palais des Beaux-Arts is one of the largest art museums in France. It is dedicated to antiquities from the Middle Ages until the Renaissance, paintings from the sixteenth through the twentieth century, sculptures, prints and drawings, plan-reliefs and ceramics. The ceramics collection holds more than 2,500 objects that range from the sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century. It includes maiolica, Chinese porcelains, French porcelain, and earthenware from Lille, Rouen and Delft. The large Delftware collection includes blue and white and polychrome objects from the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, from plates, ewers, tea canisters to butter tubs, plaques, money boxes and flower vases. One of the highlights in the Delftware collection is a pair of polychrome flower holders with fanning rows. 

The Van Gijn House is located in the Dutch city of Dordrecht. The original house was first built in 1729 for Johan van Neurenberg, a wealthy regent. Simon van Gijn, a lawyer and banker born in 1836, purchased the house with his wife in 1864. The couple lived in the house until his death in 1922. Van Gijn left the house and most of his collections to the Old Dordrecht Society. His wish was for the collection to be made publicly accessible and for his home to be converted into a museum, maintaining the interior in its original state as much as possible. Since 1925, the house has been open to the public, allowing visitors to experience upper class living during the nineteenth-century.

As a typical nineteenth-century collector, Van Gijn had wide-ranging interests, from historical prints, weapons and ships to coins, silver, paintings, glass and ceramics. Van Gijn’s collection was prominently displayed in the house for visitors to admire the collection. Following his death, the collection continued to grow due to donations, bequests and purchases.

Both porcelain and earthenware from all over the world are represented in the ceramics collection. Van Gijn also collected Delftware, such as plates, jugs, vases. Some of the highlights on display are a blue and white herring dish, jugs, dishes and two blue and white five piece garnitures, one marked for De Porceleyne Klaauw (The Porcelain Claw) factory and the other for De Vergulde Blompot (The Gilt Flowerpot) factory. Another remarkable object is this polychrome fan-shaped flower vase. Painted in the cashmere palette, which was highly en vogue around 1710, the vase shows an intriguing scene of a Chinese person and a mythological beast.

Castle Sypesteyn was built by Sir Henry van Sypesteyn (1857-1937) on old foundations in Loosdrecht during the early twentieth century. Surrounded by canals and a beautiful garden, the sumptuous castle and its interiors remain largely intact from when van Sypesteyn left it.

The van Sypesteyn family amassed their wealth through the cloth trade beginning in the mid-sixteenth century. The land on which the castle stands was first purchased by the family in the seventeenth century. An existing house was renovated by the family, but later destroyed during a war. The land was then leased to farers and sold to a farmer in the early nineteenth century. Around 1900, Sir Henry van Sypesteyn purchased his ancestral land, and planned to rebuild the family castle that once stood there. The castle was a reflection of his distinguished family, and served to display van Sypesteyn’s extensive art collection.

Henry developed an interest in history and passion for collecting from his father, who had a varied collection from coins and tokens to family portraits and documents. Growing up amongst these objects, Henry became a fanatic collector himself. Henry developed an encyclopedic collection including family portraits, weapons, silver, glass, clocks and ceramics. He even designed the castle with appropriate building materials, trees, plants and garden ornaments to convey a credible historical appearance.

The van Sypesteyn ceramics collection includes both Dutch and Asian porcelain. The Delftware collection ranges from plates and chargers to jugs and vases. It also houses a rare blue and white garniture set, an interesting blue and white cuspidor and a so-called crespina possibly made by the Verstraeten family in the city of Haarlem. Another rare highlight is a blue and white flower holder modeled as a Chinese lady marked for Pieter Adriaansz. Kocx of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory from circa 1705.

In Saint Petersburg, Russia, a series of palaces and gardens is located named The Peterhof Palace. It was commissioned by Peter the Great as a direct response to the Palace of Versailles by Louis XIV of France. Originally intending it in 1709 for country habitation, Peter the Great sought to expand the property as a result of his visit to the French royal court in 1717, inspiring the nickname of “The Russian Versailles.”

Throughout the early 18th century, Peter the Great built and expanded the Peterhof Palace complex as a part of his goal to modernize and westernize Russia. In 1714, Peter began construction of the Monplaisir Palace based on his own sketches. Completed in 1723, ‘Monplaisir’ is the magnificent palace located directly on the short of the Gulf of Finland. The palace design reflects the Tsar’s unique individuality, as he conceived the entire construction with sketches and schematic drawings of the exterior, interior layout, and some elements of the decorative finishes. Peter’s aesthetic taste and interests are revealed in the palace’s Dutch architecture. In fact, the palace is sometimes called ‘The Dutch house.’ 

Monplaisir became Peter’s preferred retreat, where he entertained only his closest friends and advisors. The interior rooms are almost entirely paneled in oak, and adorned with seventeenth and eighteenth-century paintings, of which the majority belongs to the Tsar’s original collection. Further, a large lacquer cabinet accommodated the Tsar’s highly prized collection of Chinese porcelain. The cabinet walls are decorated with large black-lacquer panels, with miniature chinoiserie-style paintings. The porcelain was displayed on the shelf-consoles attached between the panels, a prominent position that exemplified their importance to the owner.

In 1697, the Tsar visited Amsterdam and Delft, where he met with the inventor of the microscope, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. He undoubtedly became interested in Delftware during his travels, as he purchased one hundred thousand tiles to decorate his palaces in St. Petersburg, amongst others the kitchen in Monplaisir Palace. It did not stop with tiles; he also acquired a Delftware fan-shaped flower vase that is nowadays on view in Monplaisir Palace. 

Koldinghus is a Danish royal castle located in the town of Kolding on the Jutland peninsula. The castle was first built in 1268 by the Danish king to guard the border between the kingdom of Denmark and the duchy of Schleswig. Since the thirteenth century, the castle has expanded to include a range of functions, from fortress, royal residency, ruin, museum, and the location of numerous wartime negotiations. Today, the restored castle is a museum containing collections of furniture from the sixteenth century to present, Roman and Gothic church culture, Danish paintings, silver and ceramics.

The ceramics collection is displayed in the library reading room of the west wing, which was built in 1475 as the main building in the medieval castle. After earlier reconstructions, the library reading room was fitted out with columns, galleries and bookcases. Nowadays, the showcases exhibit porcelain from Asia, Germany, France and Denmark and faience from Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. An entire showcase is dedicated to Delftware from the early seventeenth century through the nineteenth century. It contains many plates and chargers, but also two spice wine bowls, several jugs and vases. One of the highlights of the Delftware collection is an early gadrooned ‘Straetwerck’ dish, painted with an angel in yellow, blue and manganese. The exceptional dish was probably produced in the Northern Netherlands around 1650.

Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum located in Williamsburg, Virginia. The designated historic district surrounding the museum contains buildings from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries making it a national treasure. Williamsburg was the thriving capital of Virginia for 81 formative years, from 1699 to 1780, when the colonies developed into a rich and powerful land stretching west to the Mississippi River and north to the Great Lakes. Williamsburg was the political, cultural, and educational center of what was then the largest, most populous, and most influential of the American colonies.

In 1926, the Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, rector of Bruton Parish Church, shared his dream of preserving the city’s historic buildings with philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr., and the restoration began. Rockefeller and Goodwin began a modest project to preserve a few of the more important buildings. Eventually, the work progressed and expanded to include a major portion of the colonial town, encompassing approximately 85 percent of the eighteenth century capital’s original area.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s many treasures include its outstanding collections. They encompass nearly 70,000 examples of American and British fine, decorative and mechanical art; 5,000 pieces of American folk art; more than 20 million archaeological artifacts; and 15,000 architectural fragments. Many of the collections furnish more than 200 rooms in Williamsburg’s historic buildings. The collections are also displayed in the art museums of Colonial Williamsburg: the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. Opened in 1985, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum is home to an extensive collection of American and British antiques. The collection comprises furniture, metals, paintings, firearms, textiles, glass and ceramics from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Colonial Williamsburg’s ceramics and glass collections encompass more than 11,000 objects ranging in date from the seventeenth century through the 1830s. The majority of objects reflect the wares that were made in or imported to America during the colonial and early national periods. Although the collection is particularly strong in English Delftware, there are also several Dutch Delftware objects. A true highlight is a pair of large flower pyramids, marked for Adrianus Kocx of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory at the end of the seventeenth century.

Delft Blue: the whole world knows this iconic earthenware for our country. However, some of the absolute masterpieces are located abroad and are rarely, if ever, seen in our country. This spring, Kunstmuseum The Hague will change this by bringing together special masterpieces for the first time. The exhibition Royal Blue is organized in conjunction with Het Loo Palace and will bring together the very best showpieces from the Rijksmuseum, Museum Prinsenhof Delft and numerous European collections, such as Hampton Court Palace and the V&A in London. In this way, the public can become acquainted with the time when the famous royal couple William and Mary had the most beautiful Delft blue ever made: Royal Blue.

William and Mary were known for their splendid collection of Delftware with which they decorated their palaces in the Netherlands and England. From pyramid-shaped tulip vases many meters tall to flowerpots and serving dishes for preserves: in the late seventeenth century the most beautiful and technically refined earthenware was created for them by the potteries in Delft.

The flowering period of Delftware coincides with the reigns of William III (1650-1702) and Mary II Stuart (1662-1695). In addition to Chinese porcelain, they also collected beautiful, refined ceramics from Delft. In fact, they were key patrons. Mary in particular was regarded as a true ambassador for Delftware and she commissioned objects at De Grieksche A factory. The exhibition focuses on the period 1689-1702, in which stadtholder William III and Mary II Stuart are also king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. Royal Blue introduces visitors to the cultural wealth that ensued from this Dutch-British alliance in the seventeenth century.

On the occasion of 400 years of Delftware and as an ode to the British-Dutch friendship, Kunstmuseum The Hague presents this spring a story about Orange on blue and white, about fragile diplomacy and glorious grandeur. Royal Blue shows how an English queen of the seventeenth century still colors the Dutch identity. The exhibition will be on view from 01 June 2020 till 22 November 2020.

The Amsterdam Museum opened as a history museum in 1926 in the Waag, one of Amsterdam’s fifteenth-century city gates. Since 1975, the museum has been located in a monumental building on the Kalverstraat. The current building once housed the Saint Lucien’s Monastery in the Middle Ages, and in 1578 the City Orphanage. The orphanage was home to thousands of children between 1580 and 1960, many of whom had lost their parents to the plague. The children also received an education here; the older boys attended school elsewhere in the city, while the girls received instruction within the orphanage and were trained in domestic skills. In honor of the history of the orphanage, the Regents’ Room and orphans’ cupboards in the inner courtyard have been left intact.

The Amsterdam Museum houses a collection of objects related to the history of Amsterdam, from the Middle Ages to the present time. Approximately half of the objects are preserved by the city itself, while the other half comes from donations and legacies. The collection has grown since the sixteenth century when the city council first placed paintings and other objects in the town hall on Dam Square. Over time, many collections of urban institutions have been added, such as the military pieces, the regents’ portraits and the guild silver collection. In the nineteenth century, various Amsterdam citizens left their art collections to the city.

The Amsterdam Museum also houses a varied collection of objects: from paintings, drawings, books and prints to furniture, textiles, glass and ceramics. Delftware is also represented, both seventeenth-century objects and eighteenth-century objects. Besides many plates and vases, the collection includes objects for the table, such as butter tubs, salt cellars, teapots and tea canisters. A very rare blue and white spice box, marked for Adrianus Kocx is also part of the collection. Other unique objects in the collection include cuspidors, candlesticks, plaques and models of shoes and cows. An absolute highlight is a late seventeenth-century blue and white flower vase of approximately 73 cm. (28.7 in.)  with both chinoiserie and western style decoration.

The Lobkowicz Palace is located inside the Prague Castle in the Czech capital. The Lobkowicz family is among the oldest and most distinguished Bohemian noble families and has played a prominent role in Central European history for over six hundred years. Successive generations have held the highest of noble titles, including Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, High Chancellors of Bohemia, Dukes of Sagan and of Roudnice, and Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

On a scale unimaginable today, they commissioned magnificent architectural projects and ground-breaking music and collected paintings, manuscripts, books, musical instruments and decorative arts that enhanced their numerous residences and increased their prestige in the courts and circles in which they moved and exerted power.

Being the oldest and largest privately owned art collection in the Czech Republic, The Lobkowicz Collections draws its significance from its comprehensive nature, which reflects the cultural, social, political and economic life of Central Europe for over seven centuries. The collection comprises approximately 1,500 paintings, including iconic images by Bruegel the Elder, Canaletto, Veronese, Velázquez, Rubens, and Cranach. It also houses an impressive display of family and royal portraits; fine porcelain, ceramics and rare decorative arts dating from the 13th to 20th centuries; an extensive collection of military and sporting rifles from the 16th to 18th centuries; and musical instruments and original scores and manuscripts by Beethoven and Mozart.

The ceramics collection comprises an exceptional Delftware dinner service marked for Lambertus Cleffius, who was the owner of De Metaale Pot (The Metal Pot) factory from 1679 to 1691. This is one of the largest and most important earthenware dinner services with over 150 pieces, consisting of plates, chargers, candlesticks, tea canisters, salt cellars, sugar casters and a set of sweetmeat dishes. It was commissioned by Count Wenzel Ferdinand Lobkowicz of Bílina (1656-1697) which is why many pieces are decorated with intricate overlapping letters of his initials WL and the coronet.

In 1883, twenty-five citizens of Minneapolis founded the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, committing them to bringing the arts into the life of their community. More than a century later, the museum they created, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, stands as a monument to a remarkable history of civic involvement and cultural achievement.

Designed by the preeminent New York architectural firm McKim, Mead and White, the original building opened its doors in 1915. A neoclassical landmark in the Twin Cities, the museum expanded in 1974 with an addition designed by the late Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. In June 2006, the museum unveiled a new wing designed by architect Michael Graves.

The museum’s permanent collection has grown from 800 works of art to more than 89,000 objects. The collection includes world-famous works that embody the highest levels of artistic achievement, spanning about 20,000 years and representing the world’s diverse cultures across six continents. The museum has seven curatorial areas: Arts of Africa & the Americas; Contemporary Art; Asian Art; Paintings; Photography and New Media; Prints and Drawings; and Decorative Arts, Textiles and Sculpture.

The Decorative Arts collection comprises several Dutch Delftware objects, such as an early eighteenth-century reeded cashmere palette five-piece garniture. The highlight of the collection is, however, a large baluster-shaped flower vase, attributed to De Witte Ster (The White Star) factory from circa 1700. The multitiered vase, which stands 117 cm (46.1 in) tall, shows wonderful blooms: borders of scrolling lotuses, chrysanthemums, ruyi (scepter heads) and the Chinese character for longevity.