In-depth Articles

The ‘t Fortuyn (The Fortune) factory was started in 1661 by Joris Jansz. Mesch, and was located on Lange Geer alongside De Metaale Pot (The Metal Pot) and several other Delftware factories.1 The factory enjoyed a long and successful existence, although a portion of the history and employee details can only surmised because the factory…

For centuries, fans have been used for both utilitarian and ceremonial functions. The fan originated in Asia, and was first used for cooling more than 2,000 years ago during the Zhou Dynasty. The exotic objects were brought to Europe by trade travelers in the sixteenth century. Fans were also seen in the decoration on Chinese…

The popularity of Delft earthenware in England reached a peak in the last decades of the seventeenth century under the influence of Queen Mary II of England and her Dutch husband King-Stadtholder William III.1 In 1700, there were three hundred noble families in England, each with their own newly obtained coats of arms. Many of…

Ancient mythological stories featuring Greek and Roman gods have been leading sources of inspiration for painters since the Renaissance, when interest in the culture, philosophy and literature of classical antiquity skyrocketed. Mythological stories, in addition to Christian motifs, were widely depicted in the visual arts well into the Baroque and Rococo periods. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is…

Delftware was produced in numerous forms and functions, some of which remain unclear today. One example of such objects are the so-called wig stands, which are designed as a sphere supported on a stem above a foot. The French, and especially King Louis XIV, dictated one of the most fashionable and unusual accessories of the…

The Eighty Years' War (1568-1648), or the Dutch War of Independence, transformed the Netherlands and gave birth to the Dutch Republic. The war grappled with freedom of religion and conscience, the right to self-determination and the right to participation. The leitmotif of the war was the emerging reformation and the fact that the Spanish king,…

De Porceleyne Fles (The Porcelain Bottle) factory was founded on the West side of the Oosteinde in the city of Delft around 1653. Of the more than thirty factories that once existed in Delft, this is the only one still operating today. De Porceleyne Fles is currently housed on the Rotterdamseweg. The factory was bought…

During the second half of the nineteenth century, there was a renewed interest in the decorative arts, and particularly ceramics. Dutch Delftware became a serious pursuit of study for art historians and collectors, and contemporary potters soon began producing Delftware replicas to satisfy demand. The Samson factory in Paris was among the producers of wares…

In 1794, Gerrit Paape wrote the treatise De Plateelbakker of Delftsch Aardewerkmaaker (‘The Faience Potter or Maker of Delftware’), in which he outlined many aspects of the eighteenth-century process of producing Delftware. This invaluable resource offers a step-by-step explanation of production, from the kinds of soil and all the workmen and their functions, to the…

Between 1550 and 1850, the Netherlands experienced exceptionally cold winters and relatively cool summers, a period in meteorological history known as the ‘Little Ice Age.’ The storms, freezing cold, ice and snow of these Dutch winters lent themselves to enchanting and atmospheric scenes often portrayed in seventeenth-century paintings. These joyful scenes of snow and ice…