Delftware

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Vase in a Japanese style, c. 1680, Delft
Window display of Delftware in the market place, Delft

Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue[1] (Dutch: Delfts blauw) or as delf,[2] is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands was the major centre of production, but the term covers wares with other colours, and made elsewhere. It is also used for similar pottery, English delftware.

Delftware is one of the types of

Chinese porcelain
, and in great demand in Europe.

Delftware includes pottery objects of all descriptions - such as plates, vases, figurines and other ornamental forms and tiles. The style originated around 1600, and the most highly regarded period of production is about 1640–1740, but Delftware continues to be produced. In the 17th and 18th centuries the manufacture of Delftware was a major industry, with product exported all over Europe.

History

The earliest tin-glazed pottery in the Netherlands was made in Antwerp where the Italian potter Guido da Savino settled in 1500,[3] and in the 16th century Italian maiolica was the main influence on decorative styles.[4] The manufacture of painted pottery spread from Antwerp to the northern Netherlands, in particular because of the sack of Antwerp by the Spanish troops in 1576 (the Spanish Fury). Production developed in Middelburg and Haarlem in the 1570s and in Amsterdam in the 1580s.[5] Much of the finer work was produced in Delft, but simple everyday tin-glazed pottery was made in places such as Gouda, Rotterdam, Haarlem, Amsterdam and Dordrecht.[6]

Willem Jansz. Verstraeten
, c. 1645-1655, Haarlem

The main period of tin-glaze pottery in the Netherlands was 1640–1740. From about 1640 Delft potters began using personal monograms and distinctive factory marks. The

a gunpowder explosion in Delft destroyed many breweries and as the brewing industry was in decline, they became available to pottery makers looking for larger premises; some retained the old brewery names, e.g. The Double Tankard, The Young Moors' Head, and The Three Bells.[7]

The use of marl, a type of clay rich in calcium compounds, allowed the Dutch potters to refine their technique and to make finer items. The usual clay body of Delftware was a blend of three clays, one local, one from Tournai and one from the Rhineland.[8]

From about 1615, the potters began to coat their pots completely in white tin glaze instead of covering only the painting surface and coating the rest with clear ceramic glaze. They then began to cover the tin-glaze with clear glaze, which gave depth to the fired surface and smoothness to cobalt blues, ultimately creating a good resemblance to porcelain.[9]

18th century Delftware, the plate at left with a Japanese scene

During the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch East India Company had a lively trade with the East and imported millions of pieces of Chinese porcelain in the early 17th century.[10] The Chinese workmanship and attention to detail impressed many. Only the richest could afford the early imports. Dutch potters did not immediately imitate Chinese porcelain; they began to do so after the death of the Wanli Emperor in 1620, when the supply to Europe was interrupted.[9] "Potters now saw an opportunity to produce a cheap alternative for Chinese porcelain. After much experimenting they managed to make a thin type of earthenware which was covered with a white tin glaze. Although made of low-fired earthenware, it resembled porcelain amazingly well."[11]

Delftware inspired by Chinese originals persisted from about 1630 to the mid-18th century alongside European patterns. Around 1700 several factories were using enamel colours and gilding over the tin-glaze, requiring a third kiln firing at a lower temperature. Later, after Japanese Imari ware had become popular in the late 1600s and early 1700s (when it too tried to fill the gap of the Chinese shortage), Delft began making their own 'Imari ware' copying the classic 'flower vase on a terrace surrounded by three panels with cranes and pine design'. Oriental styles in Delftware remained popular into the early 1700s but then declined when Chinese porcelain became available again.[12]

Delftware ranged from simple household items – plain white

windmills and fishing boats, hunting scenes, landscapes and seascapes. Sets of plates were made with the words and music of songs; dessert was served on them and when the plates were clear the company started singing.[13] The Delft potters also made tiles in vast numbers (estimated at eight hundred million[14]
) over a period of two hundred years; many Dutch houses still have tiles that were fixed in the 17th and 18th centuries. Delftware became popular and was widely exported in Europe and even reached China and Japan. Chinese and Japanese potters made porcelain versions of Delftware for export to Europe.

Some regard Delftware from about 1750 onwards as artistically inferior. Caiger-Smith says that most of the later wares "were painted with clever, ephemeral decoration. Little trace of feeling or originality remained to be lamented when, at the end of the eighteenth century, the Delftware potteries began to go out of business."

Friesland, founded in 1594 and De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles
("The Royal Porcelain Bottle") founded in 1653.

Today, Delfts Blauw (Delft Blue) is the brand name hand painted on the bottom of ceramic pieces identifying them as authentic and collectible. Although most Delft Blue borrows from the tin-glaze tradition, it is nearly all decorated in underglaze blue on a white clay body and very little uses tin glaze, a more expensive product. The

Friesland, continues the production of tin-glazed earthenware.[17][18]

Delft Blue pottery formed the basis of one of British Airways' ethnic tailfins. The design, Delftblue Daybreak, was applied to 17 aircraft.

Object gallery

  • Delftware in Pushkin Art Museum, Russia
    Delftware in
    Pushkin Art Museum
    , Russia
  • Two flower vases, early 18th century, Delft
    Two flower vases, early 18th century, Delft
  • Tulip vase, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
    Tulip vase, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
  • Charger with Shiba Onko Design, c. 1730, Delft
    Charger with Shiba Onko Design, c. 1730, Delft
  • An imari-styled vase, manufactured in De Griekse A, (ca. 1700–1720), Museum Geelvinck-Hinlopen Huis
    An
    Geelvinck-Hinlopen Huis
  • Boar's Head Tureen and Stand, c. 1750
    Boar's Head Tureen and Stand, c. 1750
  • A famille rose plate, around 1770, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
    A famille rose plate, around 1770, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
  • A ceramics workshop in Delftse Pauw
    A ceramics workshop in Delftse Pauw
  • Painting of color Delft pottery
    Painting of color Delft pottery
  • Schoonhoven silver topped scent bottle
    Schoonhoven silver topped scent bottle

Tile gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ Delft Blue, Holland.com
  2. ^ Rees, Abraham (1819) [1808]. "DELF". The Cyclopaedia; Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature: In Thirty-nine Volumes. Vol. 11. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown. p. 74. Retrieved 9 November 2022. DELF, or Delft-ware , Fr. Fayence , a kind of pottery of baked earth , covered with an enamel , or white glazing , which gives it the appearance and neatness of porcelain .
  3. ^ La Céramique anversoise de la Renaissance, de Venise à Delft, Claire Dumortier, Anthèse, Paris, 1997
  4. ^ Savage, 157
  5. ISBN 0-571-09349-3
    , p. 127
  6. ^ Caiger-Smith, p. 131
  7. ^ Caiger-Smith pp. 130–131
  8. ^ Caiger-Smith, p. 130
  9. ^ a b Caiger-Smith, p. 129
  10. ^ Volker, T. Porcelain and the Dutch East India Company, 1602–1683, Leiden, 1955) p. 22.
  11. ^ Christiaan Jörg, "Oriental Export Porcelain and Delftware in the Groningen Museum" in Ceramics Crossed Overseas: Jingdezhen, Imari and Delft from the collection of the Groningen Museum. An exhibition catalogue in collaboration with the Groninger Museum, Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Japan Airlines, 1999-2000, p. 10.
  12. ^ Christiaan Jörg, pp. 10-11.
  13. ^ Caiger-Smith, p. 136.
  14. ^ Caiger-Smith, p. 137 n. 21
  15. ^ Caiger-Smith, p. 140
  16. ^ tichelaar.nl
  17. ^ Klei/Glas/Keram. 13, No.4, 1992. Pg.103-106
  18. ^ "Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum". Tichelaar.nl. Retrieved 2012-02-22.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Delftware.
Video on an exhibition of Delftware in Haarlem, Netherlands, October 1958
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