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.

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

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

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