D2560. Pair of Miniature Cold-Painted and Gilded Figures of Jumping Horses

Delft, circa 1750

Each painted in green, blue, brown, salmon, black and gold with a blanket surmounted by a saddle, and each modeled jumping over a dotted fence, on the top of the green chamfered rectangular base.

DIMENSIONS
Heights: 9.5 cm.(3.7 in.)

NOTE
This pair of Delft figurines is cold-painted, meaning the decoration was not fired multiple times in the kiln, as would have been typical for polychrome Delftware. Instead, the paint colors were applied directly onto the white-glazed surface and left to dry—a cost-saving measure employed at the time.

Due to the absence of a final glaze firing, cold-painted decorations are naturally more susceptible to wear, as evidenced by areas of fading or loss on many surviving examples. However, in this case, a substantial amount of the original paint and gilding remains beautifully intact. The rarity of such figurines is further amplified by color wear over time and the early twentieth-century practice of completely removing cold-painted decoration, making well-preserved examples increasingly scarce.

Available