Each marked in blue with an axe for De Porceleyne Byl (The Porcelain Axe) factory

Both painted in the center with a scaly herring within a border of leaves and scrolls on the scalloped and barbed edge of the chamfered rectangular rim.

DIMENSIONS
Lengths: both 23.3 cm. (9.2 in.)

PROVENANCE
The Kitty Valkier-Schreurs Collection, Belgium;
Aronson Antiquairs, Amsterdam

LITERATURE
Described and illustrated in Aronson 2019, pp. 144-145, no. 73

NOTE
DHerring dishes are a longstanding part of the Dutch tradition of herring consumption, where herring is typically served with chopped raw onions and pickles. The Dutch have been eating herring for over a millennium, initially fishing for personal use. However, around the year 1000, commercial herring fishing emerged, spurred by the abundance of herring shoals in the North Sea. Coastal fishing villages quickly developed, taking advantage of this accessible resource. One of the key innovations in the Dutch herring industry was the preservation method called
“gibbing” (Dutch: haringkaken), invented in the late fourtheenth century by Dutch fisherman Willem Beukelszoon. This process involved removing the gills and some internal organs, while leaving the pancreas intact to aid in curing the fish. This method significantly extended the shelf life of the herring, enabling large-scale fishing and export throughout Europe. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, herring fishing became a major economic driver for the Netherlands. In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch herring fleets comprised an estimated 770 ships, far outnumbering the 150 to 200 ships involved in whaling during the same period.

Despite being called raw herring, the dish is not actually raw. The herring is first frozen and then salted for several days to allow it to ripen (producing soused herring). This process made herring not only nutritious but also affordable, with a long shelf life when stored in salted barrels, making it a valuable winter food source.

Delftware herring dishes were common in Dutch kitchens. In addition to a series of plates depicting the journey from herring catch to consumer, various types of herring dishes were produced. These dishes were often shaped like fish or designed in oval or rectangular forms, decorated with images of herring.

Before electrification, candles were the main source of light after dark. However, they were considered a luxury, even in the well-to-do home. Thus, the expression ‘the game’s not worth the candle’ highlights the fact that lighting a candle was like burning money itself. Tallow candles, made of animal fat, were the most commonly used candles. They emitted a foul odor and a black vapor, and burned very quickly. An expensive alternative was the beeswax candle, which had a more pleasant perfume and burned for a longer period of time.

Like the candles, their holders were also very expensive objects. Candlesticks gave a particular splendor to the parties and ceremonies of wealthy households. For example, candlesticks were placed in front of mirrors in order to increase the intensity of the light in French King Louis XIV’s Hall of Mirrors. Candlesticks of various shapes have been produced in Dutch Delftware since the 1680s. Some of the earliest examples are documented in the inventories of De Metaale Pot (The Metal Pot) and De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factories. These early candlesticks were sometimes executed in white Delftware, and of square or octagonal shape, as with the present pair.

Proto-Delft is an interesting group of Dutch earthenware that is the forerunner of Delftware. It is applied to the group of objects made in the transitional period between the exclusive manufacture of majolica and the early years of faience production (ca. 1629-1669)

The Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 12) tells the story of Saint Peter’s miraculous escape from prison. Peter was arrested by King Herod, who had already arrested and persecuted other members of the church. When Herod had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword, he saw that this met with approval among the Jews and decided to seize Peter during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After his arrest, Peter was imprisoned and guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

The night before his trial, Peter slept between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists (12:7). Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him (12:8). Although Peter followed him out of the prison, he thought he was hallucinating. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. The door opened, and they passed through. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen” (12:11).

The liberation of Saint Peter was a popular subject for several printmakers. In the print of Nicolaes Lastman (1585 – 1625) after a design of Jan Symonsz. Pynas (1582 – 1631), Saint Peter is taken by the hand of the angel, who leads him past the sleeping guards. Also in an engraving by printmaker Jan Luyken (1649 – 1712) the angel is leading the way for Saint Peter. It is highly probable that the earthenware painter was inspired by such prints. The types of prints available to the Delft artists in the seventeenth century were woodcuts, etchings or engravings. These prints would be in the collection of the potteries, kept for this purpose, or supplied by a client for a special commission.
 

The plaque demonstrates the trompe l’ceil (deceive the eye) technique, a style often used in old master paintings to captivate and fool the viewer. For Delft potters, they probably took inspiration from seventeenth and eighteenth century still life paintings with highly realistic details such as notes, drawings, and letters. As can be seen on this plaque, the overlapping scenes with depth and realism create an optical illusion. The composition and subject are reminiscent of the popular Delft dishes and bowls painted with playing cards. One such plate is illustrated in Lahaussois 1994, p. 80, no. 99, who comments on p. 96 that it was the Delft potters who can be credited with the idea of trompe l’oeil decoration of playing cards on ceramics, a style that became popular in the Netherlands from about 1730. It continued in popularity particularly on French faience throughout the second half of the eighteenth century, and on faïence fine (refined cream-colorer earthenware) and English porcelain in the early nineteenth century.

This pair of petit feu figures of seated ladies is typical for the third quarter of the 18th century, when Delft potters found inspiration in European subjects. During the Seven Years War (1756 – 1763), there was a decline in imported German ceramics. Thus, there was a great demand for colorful decorative objects for the dinner table and figurative groups. Delftware factories filled this gap in the market by producing polychrome figures with great success. The interest in small Delft figures faded during the last quarter of the 18th century; the well-to-do clientele preferred German porcelain to the labor-intensive, and therefore more expensive Delftware in petit feu colors.

The Netherlands has an abundance of waterways that have served as a thriving transportation system for centuries. The rivers and canals have always played an important role in Dutch life, and this polychrome group of two gentlemen in a boat perfectly encapsulates the cultural affection.

When in the second half of the eighteenth century, the orient no longer functioned as the main inspiration source, the Delft potters focused on a more Western style. The subject of daily activities became the starting point for their ceramic wares: changes in interior design, eating habits, new fashion. Possibly following the German porcelain industry, which had set trends in the third quarter of the eighteenth century with the production of figurines, the Delft potters also made large numbers of imaginative figures and figurines in varying sizes around this period. Many of these objects were made to be displayed in glass cabinets or on etageres.

Polychrome figural groups sitting in a boat are rather rare. Their rarity can be explained by the elaborate and expensive production process of these detailed objects. The smaller and more fragile details of this boat, such as the rowers and possibly the oars, were made in separate molds and added later. Whereas the larger European porcelain factories employed full-time designers to make the molds, the designs for these boats were probably created by the Delft potters themselves. The design may have been derived from porcelain examples, however no similar porcelain boats are known. Thus, it is more likely they originated from the Delft potter’s creativity. These brightly colored Delft objects found a ready market in the Netherlands, customers for whom German porcelain was too expensive or perhaps too refined. A number of factories must have been producing an enormous output. However, due to the elaborate and expensive production of these detailed objects, it must have been already costly at the end of the eighteenth century.

Needlework was a common activity featured in Dutch art and Delftware, and is seen on the present plaque and accompanying print. Moralists often praised the housewife’s ability to do needlework as it represented diligence and a woman’s domestic virtue. The young woman in the foreground is married, symbolized by her clasped hand on her cap. In contrast to the print where she wears modest clothing, the Delft plaque painter applied a more detailed and sumptuous dress. The woman is intensely focused on her work, and represents a perfect depiction of femininity and domesticity. Although genre paintings are intended to represent reality, the depiction of domestic virtue in seventeenth century Dutch genre paintings is probably not an accurate representation of everyday life.

With their high intelligence and their humanlike behavior in which we can recognize our own, monkeys and apes were either loved or hated. In art, from the fourteenth throughout the seventeenth century, monkeys were not so much targets of ridicule themselves, but were used to point out the idiocies of human endeavor. Once established as the rage in France, where its satirical freedom, its insouciance and its playful exoticism were so akin to the court culture, singerie spread rapidly around Europe. However, with few exceptions, it did not have the same fashionable effect in ceramic representations. Even in Holland, where the more jocular population was willing to laugh at its own foibles, the most popular figures produced at the Delft factories were more representative of familiar daily life than of élitist pursuits, a theme underlying singerie. This is what makes the present figures so rare and unusual, establishing them as one of the very few examples of singerie in Delftware.

Condition

• One with a repair to base leg
• One with a repair to tip of foot, hand and pipe