 |
| Mr. Martinus van den Berg |
Q: Delftware blue was born when Dutch potters started to imitate the technique of Chinese porcelain. Yet after the long history of development, are there any typical characteristics of delftware blue?
A: The story began in China hundreds of years ago. In the 1600s the beautiful porcelain came to Europe and the Netherlands, with the Dutch East India Company. It soon gained popularity and Dutch potters started to imitate the technique. At that time porcelain was an unknown material in the Netherlands. The potters aimed to copy the products with local clay, and they were successful. In the first half of the 17th century, there were several factories in the Netherlands, especially in Rotterdam and Delft.
The earliest tiles were used for flooring, often in churches, wealthy homes or institutional buildings. When some floor tiles turned out to be too delicate for heavy usage, the tiles moved to the walls. Religious pictures and floral motifs were common in this time. There are also different styles of painting, so you can also have polychrome, Gouds Platelet and Jugendsteel.
In order to make delft blue, for each model in a collection, a master mold is made first. This master mold is a precise reproduction of how the piece of pottery should look later. It can be from anything, from a vase or a dog to a more complicated construction such as a pottery violin. A number of negative working molds of these are poured in plaster. These negatives are poured full of clay. This clay cakes onto the edges of the negatives. The rest of the clay is poured out and the molds are opened. The product is polished and sponges off, after which the clay is baked for the first time. This creates the so-called biscuit dried, give this a white porous pottery. This biscuit is ready for further treatment.
What makes it different?
That makes it different from the Chinese porcelain are paintings of the typical Dutch flowers and windmills.
Where can the real delftware blue be found?
Most of real delft blue you can find in Delft. Gouda is an old town in the surrounding of Delft and already acquainted with the manufacture of pottery and clay pipes toot over the decoration of the so called “delftware” adapted it to a Dutch style.
That’s why you could find more pottery in Gouda than in Delft in those days. Still a lot of production of delft blue takes place in Gouda, but the town of Delft gave its name to the world famous delft blue.
But most importantly, you will receive a certificate of authenticity with your piece of delftware, warranted by the factory and sometimes even by the painter. Mass-produced pieces never have a signature, most of the time they only have a stamp with a factory mark.
How can you learnand preserve the technique of delftware bluewhen mass-produced articles are flooding the market?
I took up the art of delft at the age of 14 in my hometown Woerden. In the Netherlands, it takes about five to seven years to become a skilled delft craftsman. I worked at the Regina delftware factory for about 10 years before striking out on my own (Regina was a leading company in the field of delftware in Gouda. It stopped production around 1966). Since then I worked with several companies. Most of my works are special pieces, and no mass production. Each piece is made by hand.
There is no special school for delft blue painters, so you must learn it from the older people in a factory. Hand painted delftware is due to the enormous amount of work and time that goes into one piece, much more expensive than the printed counterpart. This makes it at the same time very valuable and unique, whereas printed delftware is mass-produced and has only entertainment value.
