Proto-Delft is an interesting group of Dutch earthenware that is the forerunner of Delftware. It is applied to the group of objects made in the transitional period between the exclusive manufacture of majolica and the early years of faience production (ca. 1629-1669)

The Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 12) tells the story of Saint Peter’s miraculous escape from prison. Peter was arrested by King Herod, who had already arrested and persecuted other members of the church. When Herod had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword, he saw that this met with approval among the Jews and decided to seize Peter during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After his arrest, Peter was imprisoned and guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

The night before his trial, Peter slept between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists (12:7). Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him (12:8). Although Peter followed him out of the prison, he thought he was hallucinating. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. The door opened, and they passed through. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen” (12:11).

The liberation of Saint Peter was a popular subject for several printmakers. In the print of Nicolaes Lastman (1585 – 1625) after a design of Jan Symonsz. Pynas (1582 – 1631), Saint Peter is taken by the hand of the angel, who leads him past the sleeping guards. Also in an engraving by printmaker Jan Luyken (1649 – 1712) the angel is leading the way for Saint Peter. It is highly probable that the earthenware painter was inspired by such prints. The types of prints available to the Delft artists in the seventeenth century were woodcuts, etchings or engravings. These prints would be in the collection of the potteries, kept for this purpose, or supplied by a client for a special commission.
 

The gadrooned dish is painted in blue, yellow and ochre in the center with a seated angel leaning against a post on a small ground in a roundel. This color scheme and type of decoration is typical for Straetwerck, Italian tin-glazed earthenware, which is mainly from Liguria and is named after the Straits (straet) of Gibraltar through which it was transported. The objects are decorated in the stile compendiario, a style with simple, schematically painted, polychrome decorations, mainly in orange, yellow and blue. The central decoration, often a cupid on a bit of land, is usually framed by a stylized garland.

The Dutch producers of tin-glazed earthenware imitated this Straetwerck especially in majolica, as they did with Chinese porcelain. These objects are often attributed to the workshop of Willem Jansz. Verstraeten in Haarlem, but there were more workshops that produced these wares in the Republic. Therefore it is difficult to ascribe this type of majolica with certainty to a specific production center.

The Dutch imitated Straetwerck in faience in the form of plates, as well as klapmutsen (wide-rimmed bowls) and gadrooned dishes. The gadrooned dishes seem to imitate the examples imported from Nevers and Rouen, although the decorations on the earliest examples closely resemble those on contemporary majolica. Gadrooned dishes with both single and double rows of pleats were imported from Nevers and Rouen, and possibly other French places as well.

Provenance
The R.J. Bois Collection, North-Holland

Condition

• 10 cm. hairline crack to rim
• Usual rim abrasions

Condition

• Large consolidated crack
• Usual rim abrasions

Included
Delivered in its custom box
Plate hanger and stand included

Condition

• Broken into several pieces and restored in museum style

Included
Delivered in its custom box
Plate hanger and stand included