D2036. Pair of Polychrome Fruit Basket Tureens and Covers

Delft, circa 1770

Marked AK * in blue for Albertus Kiell, the owner of De Witte Ster (The White Star) factory from 1762 until 1774

Each cover modeled as a central yellow lemon surmounting a ring of apples and pears decorated in shades of yellow and iron-red, some molded with a single green leaf, and set on a dark green mound, above a circular tureen molded with yellow wickerwork delineated in green, and the sides affixed with loop handles applied with three florets decorated with iron-red dots.

Dimensions
Heights: 10.8 cm. (4.3 in.)

Provenance
Salomon Stodel Antiquités, Amsterdam, 1993;
The Van der Vorm Collection, The Netherlands

Note
Dining à la Française (in the French manner) was a fashionable new style of dining, where guests were served numerous dishes at once during the formal dinner service. A wide range of wares were designed in the newly stylish trompe l’ceil to complement the dishes, which were symmetrically arranged on the table and within reach for guests to serve themselves. Dinner wares cleverly imitated nature in the form of fruits and vegetables. Further, the table itself would be adorned with real flowers or fruits. A pair of butter tubs like the present one, formed as a wickerwork basket with a stack of pears, would fit accordingly on the dinner table.

Similar examples
A single basket tureen with a stack of fruits and leaves in the collection of the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris is illustrated in Lahaussois 1994, p. 141, no. 185. In the same collection and illustrated on the same page ibid., no. 186, is a different model with wickerwork and a stack of five pears that is marked for De Porceleyne Byl (The Porcelain Axe) factory (inv. no. 24890). An oval shaped butter tub with pears (inv. no. 24892), also marked for De Porceleyne Byl (The Porcelain Axe) factory is illustrated on the same page, no. 185. A pair of oval shaped pear butter tubs with wickerwork baskets are illustrated in Lavino 2002, p. 133 and 134.