Chats on Old Earthenware

by Arthur Hayden

This first employment of a white enamel on a brown earthenware was clearly due to the very natural desire on the part of the potter to procure some surface upon which his decorations in colour would show well in contrast. All primitive potters have passed through several stages of evolution. Brown ware was at first plain, then it received scratched or incised decoration. Searching for greater contrast the potter applied his ornament in relief in white, as in slip ware, or he added coloured glazes, as in the Tudor miniature jugs.

But it seems that sooner or later the light background for the painted decoration must have become an ideal to strive for. It is, in effect, the same necessity which induces the signboard painter to cover his brown panel with a white background prior to painting in letters of red or blue some attractive announcement. But with the models of the Chinese potter now constantly before him the Dutch potter commenced at once to imitate them.

LAMBETH DELFT JAR.
Painted in blue, with arms of Apothecaries' Company with crest mantling and supporters. Motto—Opifer: Quæ: per: orbem: dicor; oval shield below with arms of City of London.
(11 inches high, 27¼ inches greatest circumference.)
(In the collection of Mr. Robert Bruce Wallis.)

But pleasing as is the Dutch delft in its fine colours, incorporated as they are with the enamel and glaze and giving the rich tone so much admired by collectors, and faithfully copying the form of the Nankin models, it falls short of these Oriental prototypes in many important respects. It is admittedly an imitation of the appearance of porcelain, and not an imitation of the qualities peculiar to porcelain. The Dutch potter in his delft did not, as in the case of other European potters, essay to copy the body of porcelain, and arrive at true hard white paste, as did Meissen. Apparently he took his earthenware, and with the limitations in technique in its working he produced a colourable imitation, in appearance only, of his blue and white Chinese models, and very fine some of these early seventeenth century Dutch delft pieces are, and highly prized by collectors.

But delft in comparison with porcelain may be said to be very similar to veneered furniture in relation to solid specimens. The veneer in the one case and the enamel in the other disguises something inferior beneath.

Introduction into England.—There is no doubt that, prior to its manufacture in this country, a great quantity of Dutch delft was imported and in general use in the middle years of the seventeenth century. In dealing with delft ware, in connection with the various types of earthenware at different periods of the history of the potter's art it must be borne in mind that delft was entirely of foreign origin. It owed everything to the inventiveness of the Dutch potters, and it gained very little when it became acclimatised in England, although it was manufactured here until the closing years of the eighteenth century, when Wedgwood's cream ware drove it off the market as a cheap and serviceable ware.

Naturally the close connection of the royal house of England with Holland accelerated the fashion of storing delft in closets and making considerable use of its rich colours as a decorative effect on sideboards and buffets. The lac cabinets and the fine blue and white delft jars at Hampton Court testify to the influence that the advent of William of Orange had on the taste of the country from the memorable year of 1688, when he landed at Torbay.