This vase beautifully combines the free undulations of the Rococo and exotic chinoiserie decorations. The foot, bottom and top of the vase are built up entirely of rocailles, and the cover resembles shortened Chinese robes that drape over the edges.

Jacobus Halder’s legacy encompasses traditional blue and white Delftware, figurines and figurative tableware, and a distinct group of petit feu Meissen-style rococo objects. The latter group, highlighting significant innovation, reveals a strong commitment to pioneering ideas during a period when Delft potters encountered intense competition from English creamware and German porcelain. Considering the relatively small number of objects within this group, it suggests that it either experienced limited success or faced a shortage of skilled employees after Halder sold the company.

According to Van Dam 2004, p. 180, this model must have been so popular that it also rapidly fell out of favor and disappeared, since this type of vase is so rare. There is only one other set of vases of the same undulated shape, with different decoration, and marked for Jacobus Halder known with matching covers, which is in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (inv. no. BK-NM-12400-400/402) and is illustrated in Van Dam 2004, p. 180, ill. 125, De Jonge 1947, p. 310, ill. 274, and Lunsingh Scheurleer 1984, p. 255, ill. 197. A pair of vases of a similar shape and decoration, but lacking its covers, also marked for Jacobus Halder Adriaensz., in the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (inv. no. OC(D)3-1904) is illustrated in Van Aken-Fehmers 1999, pp. 86 and 143, no. 50. Other objects marked for Halder, such as candlesticks and coffeepots are also decorated in the highly fashionable rococo style.

Read more about the maker of this vase, in-depth-article from March 2024.

Marked A/IH in iron-red for Jacobus Halder Adriaensz., the owner of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory from 1765 to 1768

Painted on the molded rococo baluster-shape body with sprigs issuing red, manganese and gilded blossoms and green leaves, and on the front and reverse with two pastoral scenes of a romantic couple in a landscape within gilded and iron-red edged panels, the molded rococo cover decorated in the same style with on the front and reverse a pastoral scene of two ladies and a gentleman seated in the grass within a gilded and iron-red edged panel between sprigs issuing red flowers and green leaves, and surmounted by a female Chinese head.