Homenews

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.

Lytes Cary Manor is a small medieval manor house located in Somerset, England. The house was originally occupied by the Lyte family who settled in the area in the thirteenth century. The Lyte family lived here for over six generations and gradually expanded the house. 

The founder of that family was William le Lyte, who was a feudal tenant of the estate as early as 1286. It is believed that his grandson Peter built the chapel, which dates back to 1343. In the early sixteenth-century a great hall was added, which reached through a 2-storey porch with a fine oriel on the upper floor. There is a ground-floor parlour with a great chamber above, the ceiling of which is decorated with an unusually early example of plasterwork ribs forming a pattern of stars and diamonds. When this addition was completed, the home was occupied by Henry Lyte, a keen herbalist and gardener who grew all kinds of fruits in the practical garden. In 1578, he dedicated his Niewe Herball to Elizabeth I ‘from my poore house at Lytescarie’.

By the mid-eighteenth century, the family faced serious financial difficulty and in 1755 they were forced to sell the estate to Lytes Cary. Lytes Cary was then tenanted by a series of farmers until Sir Walter Jenner bought the estate in 1907. When the Jenners arrived the Great Hall was being used as a cider press, the Great Parlour stored agricultural materials and the Little Parlour was a carpenter’s workshop. The Little Parlour later became Sir Walter’s private study. He restored the house to a seventeenth-century style and also added a new west wing. Sir Walter also created a new Arts and Crafts-style garden that mostly featured rectangular ‘rooms’ separated by yew hedges and stone walls, each reflecting a different mood or purpose. In 1948, Sir Walter decided to pass the house onto the National Trust.

Today, the intimate manor house of Lytes Cary is filled with the collection of the Jenners. On view are lovingly restored pieces of oak furniture and fittings from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, paintings, and seventeenth-century Flemish tapestries. It also houses a large ceramics collection, from Chinese porcelain Kangxi wares and ming celadon dishes to European pottery. Besides several objects of Staffordshire pottery, the true highlight is formed by a pair of Delft blue and white pyramidal flower vases, decorated with the virtues and putti in characteristic chinoiserie borders. The vases, which stand 99 cm. (39 in.) tall, are marked for Adrianus Kocx of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory at the end of the seventeenth century.

The Musée Benoît-De-Puydt is located in the charming Northern French city of Bailleul. The museum was founded in 1859, when a wealthy collector Benoît De Puydt left his collection to Bailleul, his native town.

De Puydt was born in 1798 in Bailleul. He was a wealthy man, partly because his father was a rentier. As a notary and later also a rentier, he could afford to purchase fine art and objects and became a passionate art connoisseur and collector. With no family of his own, De Puydt focused on his collection with heart and soul. De Puydt’s collection included European works of art, as well as porcelain from the Far East. Because of his classical and literary education, he had a wide interest in furniture, sculpture, painting, ceramics and decorative art.

De Puydt bequeathed his collection to Bailleul, and in June 1859 the first inventory of the collection was made. In 1861, a drawing academy and the museum was opened. Over the years the collection expanded with donations by artists and art enthusiasts. These gifts have continued the legacy of De Puydt, in keeping with the style of the collector’s home, thus preserving the particular charm of this museum. However, a portion of the collection has also been lost. During World War I, many objects were transferred to Normandy, and the remainder was never recovered. The War also destroyed ninety percent of the city, including the museum. A new museum was designed in 1930 and opened in 1934.

The museum contains paintings from the Flemish, French, Dutch and Bailleul schools. It also boasts a collection of sculptures, especially sixteenth century Flemish statues, furniture, lace objects and gold- and silverware. Further, the museum has a large collection of Italian Maiolica, Chinese and Japanese porcelain and faience from Lille, Bailleul and Delft.

The Delft collection comprises both seventeenth and eighteenth-century objects, from vases, chargers and plates to plaques with chinoiserie, biblical, floral or genre scenes. The collection also houses two trompe l’oeil birdcage plaques, decorative Delft tableware, such as trompe l’oeil tureens, and polychrome figures of animals. An extraordinary object in the collection is an early eighteenth century red and gilded plate, with a face surrounded by sun rays in the center. It is marked for Adriaa[e]n van Rijsselberg[h] (1681-1735) who was a contracted painter at De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory, and set up his own business after Van der Heul’s death.

The Musée de la Chartreuse is located in the city of Douai in Northern France. The initial museum, Musée de Douai, opened to the public in about 1800. The first core collections of the museum were formed during the revolutionary seizures from 1789 until 1794. The Douai collection transformed and grew throughout the nineteenth century and in 1914 comprised approximately 2,000 objects of painting and sculpture, 6,000 archeological exhibits and the same number of ethnographical pieces. However, during the World Wars part of the collection was looted or destroyed by bombs. Unfortunately, the Musée de Douai was also irreparably damaged by wartime bombing in 1944.

Not far from the destroyed Musée de Douai was the former convent of the Carthusians. Although also severely damaged by the bombing in 1944, the city of Douai bought the building complex to install the collections of the old museum in the early 1950s. The museum has been established in this former convent since 1958.

The collection has grown steadily since the 1960s. During the first twenty years after the reopening, more than sixty paintings were acquired. The collection of the Musée de la Chartreuse includes works of art ranging from the late Middle Ages to the present day. It comprises paintings, sculptures, decorative arts and graphic arts. Besides several donations and legacies, the museum purchased many works of art to strengthen its collection.

The collection comprises also several Dutch Delftware objects, of which the pair of Hoppesteyn vases is the absolute highlight. To this date it is unknown how this remarkable pair of vases entered the museum collection. The oldest provenance available is from 1877 when the pair was listed on the museum inventory list. As more primary source materials are digitized, we may one day be able to pinpoint the missing links between Musée de la Chartreuse and the factory that produced the pair in late seventeenth century Delft.

The Kunstmuseum in The Hague has an important collection of Dutch Delftware and we have been fortunate to partner with them in the past years. In the magnificent permanent exhibition ‘Delftware Wonderware‘ the history of Dutch Delftware is told with many objects. It comprises over 235 items, which give a unique view of the Delftware industry through the ages in a dynamic presentation. As interesting and fascinating as Delftware was back in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the exhibition also shows how contemporary designers are still inspired by the Delftware of yesteryear.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam houses an important collection of Dutch Delftware. Part of this collection is on view in a gallery dedicated to King Willem III. Especially his wife, Mary, was a great admirer of Dutch Delftware and the orders of her and her court were an important stimulus for the Delft faience industry. 

Dishes, jugs, candle sticks and so many other objects from various Delft factories are on show in this gallery. Mary was fond of gardening and to display her flowers and plants, she ordered large urns, vases and flower pyramids. Of the latter a wonderful large pair is exhibited. Inspired by a Chinese porcelain tower, these obelisk shaped flower holders have a Chinese decoration. But at a closer look, one sees also the western influence, which can be found among others in the recumbent lions that support the bases with a ball or terrestrial globe clamped between their forepaws, the volutes with sphinxes on top of the base with the obelisk rising on top of them, and the crowning finial of a classical female bust, possibly Queen Mary herself.