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.

From the middle ages onward the barber did not only shave your beard. Since he made both his knives to shave beards, and axes, and sharp surgeon knives and scissors and the pliers to pull teeth, the barber’s field of activity included that of a surgeon, a kind of combination of a dentist and physician. Pulling molars and blood-letting were the most common treatments. Someone who did all of this at the same time is called the ‘barber surgeon’.

From a simple oval or circular utilitarian metal form, barber’s bowls in Delftware developed throughout the eighteenth century into elegant rococo shapes, of which the present bowl is an unusually spirited example.

In the seventeenth century it became increasingly difficult for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to import porcelain due to civil unrests in China and the Company decided to relocate this trade to Japan. Initially, the Dutch ordered copies of Chinese porcelain, but soon Japanese products arrived on the market and various ceramic decors were exchanged with the Delft factories. From 1660 the VOC increasingly imported multi-colored porcelain, including Kakiemon. This Japanese porcelain was very exclusive and therefore became a beloved subject for the Delft potters. Objects were produced in a Kakiemon palette often with a typical oriental decoration, as can be seen on this pair of butter tubs. This decoration consists of tied grain sheaves, behind which grow bamboo, pine trees and prunus blossom. A bird is perched on the branches, and sometimes quails or even tigers were painted on the ground. The Delft potters recreated this Kakiemon decoration, but adapted it to their own Western taste. Japanese Kakiemon porcelain is rarely accurately imitated in Delft. Usually the Delft Kakiemon decorations were expanded and painted as full patterns on European forms instead of painting the object only to a limited extent as is common with Japanese Kakiemon. Since the price of a Delftware object was largely determined by the time spent on the paintwork, it makes sense that the Delft painters almost completely decorated their objects. The finer, but especially the fuller a piece was decorated, the more expensive it was.

Condition

• Repairs to handles
• One cover with repaired section to rim
• One stand restored and the other with repaired chip to rim

Miniature ceramic shoes like these were sold at annual fairs and markets. Although most examples are undated, some bear dates and initials, indicating that they were offered as gifts on special occasions. Such shoes held romantic, erotic, and whimsical connotations that can be related to the visual puns associated with shoes in contemporary Dutch painting, as well as to the tradition of brides receiving and wearing clogs during the wedding ceremony. The connotation attached to shoes in the seventeenth century as well as in the present ceramic pair indicates that such ceramic shoes may have been exchanged by lovers as a symbol of good luck in marriage.

Condition

• Some rim fritting

Provenance
The Anton F. Philips (1874-1951) Collection, Eindhoven, and thence by family descent

Condition

• Repaired chip to tip of spout and spout tip of cover