Main Image by Femke Haitsma Mulier

The Rijssens Museum is located in the small Dutch town of Rijssen and has been housed in the historic manor house De Oosterhof since 1988. The museum traces its origins to the Stichting Oudheidkamer Riessen (Riessen Antiquities Foundation), established in 1951 following a successful exhibition celebrating the town’s 700th anniversary. The enthusiastic public response highlighted the importance of preserving Rijssen’s cultural heritage and ultimately led to the creation of a permanent museum. Today, it presents the history of Rijssen through archaeology, local traditions, the textile industry, and one of the town’s greatest cultural treasures: the Van Heel Collection.

De Oosterhof is a historic havezate (moated manor house) whose origins date back to the early fourteenth century. First mentioned in 1324, it remained in the hands of several prominent noble families for centuries. Much of the building’s present appearance dates from eighteenth-century alterations.

At the heart of the museum is the Van Heel Collection, assembled by Marin Gerard van Heel (1876–1950) and his wife Gertrud J.M. Willems. Born in Nijverdal, Van Heel grew up in Rijssen after the death of his father. His mother’s family, the Ter Horsts, were among the founders of Ter Horst & Co., the jute manufacturing company that transformed Rijssen into one of the Netherlands’ leading textile centers. After completing a technical education in England, Van Heel joined the family business, eventually becoming one of its partners.

Van Heel’s fascination with antiques began at an early age. Rather than relying exclusively on established dealers, he spent years exploring farms and country houses throughout Twente in search of early pottery, pewter, and other historic objects. These expeditions were often undertaken with Izak (Izaak) Vomberg (1853–1943), a respected Jewish art and antiques dealer from Rijssen whose exceptional eye for quality and extensive knowledge of decorative arts proved invaluable in shaping the collection. Acting as both advisor and purchasing agent, Vomberg helped Van Heel acquire many outstanding objects.

Although Van Heel became an important Dutch collector, he remained a remarkably modest figure. Contemporary accounts describe him as a discerning connoisseur who preferred scholarship over publicity and generously shared his expertise with fellow collectors, museum professionals, and researchers.

Over several decades, Van Heel assembled an exceptional collection that included seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch Delftware, Old Master paintings, silver, glass, clocks, jewelry, and miniature works of art. Following his death in 1950, his widow honored his wishes by donating the greater part of the collection to the Stichting Oudheidkamer Riessen, ensuring that it would remain accessible to the public.

With more than 225 objects, Dutch Delftware forms one of the principal strengths of the Van Heel Collection. Since 1967, much of the collection has been on long-term loan to Rijksmuseum Twenthe. Today, in collaboration with Rijksmuseum Twenthe, a selection of these objects is displayed in the Rijssens Museum.

Among the Delftware highlights are several eighteenth-century figures, plates, and vases, as well as a rare money bank dated 1743 (Fig. 1). Inscribed “Hier trekt men omt / Hoogste nomer” and bearing the initials H V MD on the underside, it is one of the few surviving Delft faience money banks. Even rarer is a polychrome candlestick modeled as a tree trunk with leafy branches and marked HB for Hugo Brouwer, owner of De Drie Porceleyne Flessies (The Three Porcelain Bottles) between 1761 and 1777 (Fig. 2). Another highlight is a petit feu enamelled and gilt tobacco jar (Fig. 3), decorated with landscapes framed by floral scrollwork and surmounted by a tulip-shaped finial. It beautifully illustrates how the fashionable Rococo style of Meissen porcelain was successfully adapted to a distinctly Dutch Delftware form.

The Rijssens Museum is well worth a visit for anyone with an interest in Dutch Delftware and the history of collecting.

Ceramics naturally form an important part of this story. The museum’s holdings include examples of Frisian faience alongside a small but noteworthy group of Delftware. These collections illustrate the close relationship between the pottery traditions of Delft and Friesland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While Frisian potteries, particularly those in Harlingen, developed their own distinctive character, they shared techniques, forms, and decorative sources with their counterparts in Delft. Viewed together, the two traditions demonstrate the rich diversity of Dutch tin-glazed earthenware and the artistic exchange that connected the major ceramic centers of the Dutch Republic.

The museum’s Delft collection includes a group of tobacco jars, among them a fine example produced at De Porceleyne Schotel (The Porcelain Dish) factory during the ownership of Johannes van Duijn (Fig. 1), as well as a rare eighteenth-century plaque depicting the interior of a hat shop, an exceptionally uncommon subject in Delftware (Fig. 2).  It offers a lively glimpse into the flourishing consumer culture of the Dutch Republic, showing customers selecting fashionable hats while milliners work behind the counter. As one of the few known Delft plaques devoted to a retail interior, it reflects the growing importance of specialized shops and fashionable consumption during the eighteenth century.

Another highlight is a beautifully painted floral plaque, featuring an elaborate bouquet arranged in an ornamental vase (Fig. 3). Reflecting the enduring popularity of Dutch flower painting, it showcases the refined brushwork and artistic sophistication that characterize the finest eighteenth-century Delftware.

With its outstanding collections of art, history, and decorative arts, the Fries Museum offers a fascinating introduction to the rich cultural heritage of Friesland. The museum’s holdings of both Frisian faience and Delftware beautifully illustrate the artistic dialogue between these closely related ceramic traditions, making it well worth a visit.

Founded in 1862 as the Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum in Warsaw (Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, or NMW) is among Poland’s oldest and most esteemed art institutions. Rooted in a desire to preserve and celebrate national artistic heritage, the museum’s evolution closely mirrors the country’s own turbulent yet resilient history. Following Poland’s return to independence in 1918, the museum was re-envisioned as a cornerstone of national identity. As part of this ambition, a new modernist building was commissioned, constructed between 1927 and 1938—an architectural expression of both stability and cultural rebirth in the capital city of Warsaw.

Today, the National Museum in Warsaw houses an extraordinary collection of approximately 830,000 works of art, encompassing a broad historical and geographical spectrum. From antiquity to the present, the holdings include paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, coins, textiles, ceramics, and utilitarian objects, as well as a growing corpus of modern design.

The museum’s strength lies not only in its breadth but in the thoughtful way it integrates Polish heritage into the wider European and global narrative. Galleries dedicated to Old Masters, Medieval sacred art, nineteenth-century Romanticism, and avant-garde modernism present a cohesive and immersive experience, supported by scholarly interpretation and dynamic curation.

The museum’s Western European collections include a rich array of Dutch and Flemish paintings, drawings, and prints from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. These works, ranging from portraits and landscapes to genre scenes and still lifes, reflect the profound influence of the Dutch Golden Age throughout Europe, including in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The museum also houses a collection of Delftware, particularly from around 1700, featuring blue-and-white plates and dishes, as well as ewers, a large flower urn, and a red stoneware teapot.

In the serene heart of Begijnhofpark in Kortrijk, Belgium, lies Abby. Located on a site with over two millennia of layered history, Abby is both a cultural sanctuary and a dynamic space for reflection, creativity, and dialogue. While its roots trace back to a Roman settlement and a Cistercian abbey disrupted by the Iconoclasm, today it is an institution where the past meets the present through art, heritage, and ceramics.

The foundations of Abby’s building date back to the late sixteenth century, when a new Cistercian abbey was constructed within the city walls of Kortrijk after the original monastic complex on the Groeninge plain was abandoned during the Iconoclasm. This new abbey thrived for over two centuries, until 1797, when the French revolutionary regime expelled the nuns and repurposed ecclesiastical properties. In the following decades, portions of the abbey were demolished to make way for the convent of the Poor Clares, known locally as the Arme Klaren.

These cloistered women inhabited the site from 1845 until 1978, continuing traditions of prayer, contemplation, and labor, most famously, the baking of communion wafers. After their departure, the building entered a new chapter. Restoration efforts in the 1980s and 1990s paved the way for a cultural reawakening. By 1993, the former abbey was gradually transformed into a museum space, welcoming the city’s growing collection of visual and applied arts.

Today, Abby houses one of the most significant ceramic collections in Flanders, alongside masterpieces by old masters and a remarkable body of work by Kortrijk-based animal and landscape painters. The institution also cares for an eclectic mix of interior objects, archaeological finds, and items of folk art. Rather than presenting these in a fixed display, Abby opts for a dynamic curatorial approach: objects from the collection are revealed through temporary exhibitions and in a biennially changing core presentation, the ReCollectie.

Among Abby’s key assets is the city’s extensive ceramic collection, comprising over 35,000 registered objects. This assemblage spans a wide spectrum of ceramic typologies, ranging from archaeological fragments and vernacular wares to elite tableware and decorative faience.

Delftware is also richly represented within this scope, encompassing everything from ornate butter dishes, decorative plaques, figural animals, and biblical tiles to colorful chargers, refined vases, and even curious hybrids such as knife handles and tobacco jars, illustrating both the artistic diversity and technical ingenuity of this iconic Dutch tradition.

The Detroit Institute of Arts is located in the city’s Cultural Center Historic District in Midtown, directly opposite the Detroit Public Library and near Wayne State University. The museum complex, which is admired for its Beaux-Arts and Italian Renaissance influences, anchors a distinguished civic ensemble and serves as a major cultural landmark for the metropolitan region.

Founded in 1885 by civic leaders and transferred to municipal ownership in 1919, the museum moved into its present building in 1927, designed by Paul Philippe Cret. In 1932–33, Diego Rivera executed the monumental Detroit Industry Murals in Rivera Court, an icon of U.S. muralism and an enduring visual narrative of labor, technology, and Detroit’s auto industry. A major renovation and expansion, completed in 2007, modernized the galleries and visitor circulation while preserving the building’s historic fabric.

Today, the DIA’s holdings number more than 65,000 objects, encompassing works from the ancient Mediterranean, the Islamic world, sub-Saharan Africa, the Indigenous cultures of the Americas, and Asia, alongside strong European and American collections. Highlights include Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Wedding Dance, a touchstone of Northern Renaissance art, and the Detroit Industry Murals, widely regarded as among the most significant works of twentieth-century mural painting in the United States. The museum’s encyclopedic scope allows visitors to trace global artistic traditions over millennia, with particular strengths in seventeenth-century Dutch painting, nineteenth-century American art, and European decorative arts.

The Detroit Industry Murals, executed in buon fresco between 1932 and 1933, constitute a monumental narrative of technology, labor, and natural forces. Commissioned with the support of Edsel B. Ford, Rivera’s cycle draws upon imagery from the Ford River Rouge complex to construct a modernist allegory of industrial production. The murals remain an enduring focal point of the DIA’s identity and a defining example of art commissioned for civic spaces during the Great Depression.

Among the museum’s lesser-known yet historically rich holdings is a compact but significant group of Delftware dating from the late seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries. Housed within the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department, these works include plates, chargers, plaques, and elaborate vases that reflect both domestic utility and the display culture of the Dutch Republic.

A particularly notable piece is the garniture of three vases (ca. 1690) from De Paauw (The Peacock) factory, produced under the direction of Petronella van Dijssel. Decorated with stylized flora, insects, and birds, this set exemplifies Delft potters’ adaptation of imported Chinese porcelain designs to European tastes. Another highlight, a flower vase attributed to De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory and possibly made by Adrianus Kocx, demonstrates the specialized forms developed for displaying tulips and other luxury blooms during the Dutch Golden Age.

Overlooking Brussels’ magnificent Grand Place, the Museum of the City of Brussels serves as both a historical archive and a civic treasure. Located in the Maison du Roi, or Broodhuis in Dutch, the museum occupies one of the square’s most imposing buildings, offering an immersive journey through the political, artistic, and social development of the Belgian capital.

The Maison du Roi has occupied a central role in the life of Brussels since the Middle Ages. Originally constructed in the early thirteenth century as a covered bread market (broodhuis), the building stood directly opposite the Town Hall, symbolizing the balance between civic and commercial life. Over time, the structure was repurposed to house administrative offices of the Duke of Brabant, earning it the moniker Maison du Duc. When the Habsburgs came to power, it was renamed Maison du Roi, the King’s House, even though no monarch ever resided there.

In the nineteenth century, the deteriorated medieval structure was demolished and replaced with the current neo-Gothic building. Designed in the spirit of national romanticism, it was intended to reflect the grandeur of the late Middle Ages while serving a modern civic function. By 1887, the Maison du Roi was officially inaugurated as the Museum of the City of Brussels, entrusted with collecting, preserving, and presenting objects that tell the story of the capital and its citizens.

Today, its collections include over 7,000 objects, spanning from the Middle Ages to the present. Paintings, maps, sculptures, textiles, ceramics, photographs, and architectural fragments are all displayed across several themed galleries, arranged chronologically and thematically.

One of the museum’s most distinctive features is its focus on Brussels as a living, evolving city. Its holdings include original statues from the façade of the Town Hall, masterworks of Gothic stone carving, as well as richly woven sixteenth-century tapestries that once decorated ceremonial chambers. The museum also houses the original seventeenth-century statue of Manneken Pis, along with a rotating display of over 1,000 costumes donated by foreign dignitaries, cultural groups, and private citizens. 

Among the museum’s decorative arts, ceramics play a subtle yet meaningful role. Although not a ceramics museum in the strict sense, the Museum of the City of Brussels features domestic pottery, faience, and imported earthenware that reflect everyday use and elite taste alike. These objects also speak to Brussels’ position within a vibrant network of artistic exchange, particularly with neighboring Holland.

Constructed in the 1740s as a symbol of aristocratic sophistication, Fairfax House is one of England’s most complete surviving examples of Georgian urban architecture. Commissioned by Charles Gregory Fairfax, 9th Viscount Fairfax of Emley, the house was designed as a winter residence in the vibrant city of York. Its interiors were shaped by the hand of John Carr, Yorkshire’s most celebrated eighteenth-century architect, whose neoclassical aesthetic imbued the house with symmetry, grace, and grandeur.

Following the death of the Viscount, Fairfax House entered a long period of functional repurposing, serving at various times as a club and a cinema. It was not until the late twentieth century that a comprehensive and faithful restoration, led by the York Civic Trust, returned the building to its original splendor. Today, Fairfax House serves as both a museum and a living evocation of elite Georgian domestic life.

Central to the identity of Fairfax House is the Noel Terry Collection, one of the most important private assemblages of Georgian decorative arts in Britain. Noel Terry, a descendant of the famed York-based chocolate manufacturing family, was a discerning collector whose passion lay in recreating the environment of an eighteenth-century townhouse with academic fidelity.

The collection comprises exquisite examples of English furniture, clocks, porcelain, silver, and glass, all carefully curated to reflect the refinement and cosmopolitanism of the Georgian period. What sets the Fairfax House experience apart is its immersive nature: the objects are not presented in isolation but integrated into fully furnished period rooms, where they engage in a visual dialogue with their architectural surroundings.

Among the many treasures in the collection is a particularly elegant Dutch Delftware vase, which adds an international accent to the narrative of English domestic taste.

Although the museum’s principal focus is on pipes, its holdings also reflect broader cultural and artistic trends. Among its treasures are several remarkable pieces of Delft faience. Closely tied to the tobacco trade, these include snuff jars, tiles, and a wonderful tobacco box.

A remarkable tobacco box in the collection, formerly part of the Aronson Collection, was produced under Johannes van Duyn, owner of the De Porceleyne Schotel (The Porcelain Dish) factory from 1764 to 1772, or his widow Van Duijn–van Kampen, who ran the factory from 1772 to 1773. With its octagonal body, gently undulating vertical walls, and eight short legs, the box echoes the form of contemporary silver tobacco containers. Typically produced using a mold for consistency, it includes both an inner lid to preserve the tobacco’s freshness and a decorative outer lid topped with a statuette of a seated tobacco merchant. Painted with a mixture of Chinese Wan-Li motifs—stylized artemisia leaves, pomegranates, and scrollwork—the jar exemplifies the fusion of design trends and practical function that characterized 18th-century Delftware.

Fittingly, in this museum dedicated to the culture of tobacco, Delft tobacco jars are represented as well. Two particularly striking examples, both marked 8 B:P, depict the Amsterdam Old Waag. One jar bears, on its reverse, a vignette of the tobacco firm Jillisse & Jamin, showing the so-called Oude Waag on the Dam—demolished in 1808 because it obstructed King Louis Napoleon’s view from the Royal Palace. This jar is numbered N 9. on the front. A second jar in the collection, decorated with the same motif, bears the number N 16. The relatively high numbering indicates the importance of the shop, where at least sixteen of such jars must once have stood.

Together, these pieces illustrate how the Amsterdam Pipe Museum not only preserves the instruments and traditions of smoking but also sheds light on the ways Delft faience intersected with the world of tobacco. These objects are another great example of Delftware connecting craftsmanship, practical use, and aesthetic appeal.

The Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza (MIC Faenza) is one of the world’s most significant ceramic museums. While the museum’s name is synonymous with the refined majolica wares of central Italy, it also offers a lens into the broader European ceramic tradition, including the Netherlands’ famed Delftware.

Founded in 1908 by local art historian and philanthropist Gaetano Ballardini, the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza (MIC Faenza) stands as a monument to the cultural significance of ceramics across civilizations. Faenza itself had been a center of majolica production since the late Middle Ages, lending its name to “faience,” the tin-glazed pottery that became widespread across Europe.

Ballardini’s vision was born from the devastation of the 1908 Messina earthquake, during which a large quantity of salvaged ceramic fragments from southern Italy were relocated to Faenza. These remnants, combined with an already rich local tradition, inspired the creation of a museum that would not only preserve Italian majolica but also serve as a global repository of ceramic art. His mission was unambiguous: to establish ceramics as a major art form worthy of academic study and international collaboration.

Over the past century, the MIC has evolved into one of the most comprehensive ceramic museums in the world. Its collection spans ancient Mesopotamian and Pre-Columbian ceramics, Islamic wares, Renaissance masterpieces, East Asian porcelain, and modern ceramic art.

Within the European galleries of MIC Faenza, the development of tin-glazed earthenware beyond Italy is represented in both breadth and depth. The Dutch section, though more modest in volume compared to the museum’s Italian holdings, includes a carefully curated selection of Delftware that illustrates the dissemination and transformation of faience traditions across northern Europe.

These pieces, often blue-and-white, though occasionally polychrome, are notable not only for their technical refinement but for the way they absorb and recontextualize motifs from Italian, Chinese, and even Ottoman sources. Scenes derived from prints by Raphael or mythological figures reminiscent of istoriato maiolica coexist with pastoral landscapes and chinoiserie compositions more closely associated with the Dutch taste.

The MIC’s approach underscores a key historical insight: that Delftware was not merely a substitute for porcelain or a derivative of Italian design, but a genre that evolved through a process of cultural synthesis. In this light, Delftware occupies a central position in the European ceramic narrative, one that complements and extends the story begun in Faenza.

National Maritime Museum

Since 1973 housed in a stately 17th-century building along the eastern docklands of Amsterdam, Het Scheepvaartmuseum (The National Maritime Museum) invites visitors to explore over five centuries of Dutch maritime history. The monumental structure was designed in 1656 by architect Daniël Stalpaert and originally functioned as the arsenal of the Admiralty of Amsterdam, where cannons, sails, rigging, and other naval equipment were stored. Ingeniously, the barrel-vaulted cellars beneath the courtyard collected up to 40,000 litres of rainwater to supply the fleet with fresh drinking water.

The museum’s origins date back to May 10, 1916, with the founding of the Vereeniging Nederlandsch Historisch Scheepvaart Museum, which remains the legal owner of the collection to this day. This foundation was a direct outcome of the resounding success of the First Dutch Exhibition on Shipping, held in 1913. Over time, the collection expanded rapidly with contributions from shipping companies, private collectors, and maritime enthusiasts. Today, it comprises approximately 300,000 objects, making it one of the most important maritime collections in the world.

Queen Wilhelmina officially opened the museum on November 22, 1922, in a building originally intended as a temporary home, located on the corner of Cornelis Schuytstraat and De Lairessestraat in Amsterdam-Zuid. The building, later used by Christie’s auction house until 2018, still bears visual reminders of its maritime function, such as wave motifs in its brick façade, designed by architect Lacroix.

Among the museum’s many highlights are pieces of Delftware depicting maritime themes. These include rarely seen blue and white plates depicting whaling scenes, made at De Porceleyne Bij l(The Porcelain Axe) factory. In addition, the museum houses more modern examples of Delftware, including commemorative plates produced by De Porceleyne Fles (Royal Delft). The collection also features prints that once served as visual sources for Delftware painters, offering valuable insight into the creative process behind many decorated ceramics.

The National Maritime Museum provides a rich perspective on Dutch maritime history and its connections to Delft faience. During SAIL Amsterdam 2025, taking place from August 20 to 24, the museum will welcome all visitors free of charge—an ideal opportunity to experience this remarkable institution firsthand.