GOUDA-DESIGN
Collecting Dutch Delftware - Part 4
Doreen & George naming names in their continuing story of Collecting Dutch Delftware.
"Thanks once again to Stuart and Kim for allowing us to show some more of our Dutch Delftware. Most of the pieces that we are going to show in this section are either signed in full or traced by their initials."
De Porceleyne Fles
(Royal Delft)
This is a piece from
the De Porceleyne Fles factory.
It is a small plaque, 7.6cm in diameter, with a date mark 'G' for 1885. The artist is Johann Suhl who worked at Fles during the period 1882 to 1915 and who became an exceptionally talented painter, producing some fabulous pieces of de Porceleyne Fles. Examples of these pieces can be seen in Rick Erickson's book "Royal Delft - a guide to de Porceleyne Fles". The piece is in a Dutch hallmarked (lion facing right) Art Nouveau silver frame. If the plaque has been with the silver frame from 1885, and it looks as though it has, then this makes the silver frame very early Art Nouveau. The Art Nouveau period was from about 1880 to 1910. We bought this at an Antiques Fair where the stallholder was advertising it just as silver with no mention of the Delft plaque. Little treasures like this can occasionally be found at most antique fairs and usually only cost what we would call pocket money - a few GBP's.
Brantjes Purmerend
Pieces of Brantjes Delftisch are very rare. These pieces were painted in the early production years when a 'Kan' mark was used. Clomps were used from a later period and always with the 'NB' - Nicolaas Brantjes - Faience de Purmerende. Some of the information for these pieces was kindly given to us by the Purmerend Museum. As you can see these two are beautiful pieces and in excellent condition. We would consider them both an exciting find. We will try to explain the base marks.
The Vase (19.0cm)
- on some pieces you will find a painted Kan (jug) in the Delft
colour and below the Kan is the 'AP'connected (we believe this
stands for Aardewerk Purmerend), then the 'Delft' sign. On the
far left is one of the artist's signatures (there are two) and
at the bottom of the vase is the signature of the other artist
Bernardus Johannus Boeziek. Boeziek who was born in Amsterdam
8th May, 1877 was a Brantjes painter, potter and artist. He was
educated at Rijksacademie, Amsterdam. The 'B' on the right-hand
side of the base is the date letter for 1897. The vase, which
is one of two, was found at a famous antiques fair in Derbyshire,
England. The two vases were spotted in the distance on the dealer's
shelves (as avid collectors of anything know you develop a kind
of sixth sense and you spot something and home in on it).
The Ewer (22.0cm)
- there is no 'Kan' or jug mark on this one, we have another
piece with markings like this but which also includes the 'Kan'
mark. The 'APB' at the top is probably 'Aardewerk Purmerend Brantjes',
then the Delft mark 'Delftisch Aardewerk'. To the left-hand side
is one of the artist's signatures, then there is the 'B' again
for 1897 and to the right is 'AV' connected for A.J. Visser.
We do not have any record of him working for Brantjes but it
could well be that he did as painters did move around from factory
to factory. We have him recorded on the Rozenburg list and we
have also seen his initials on P.B. Delft pieces dated 1910.
When Brantjes merged with Haga in 1904 some of the artists moved
to other factories Rozenburg being one. This piece was found
at a famous antiques fair in Staffordshire, England.
As you can see Brantjes pieces were all very busy in what was written on the base, lots of information, both in the Delft and the Nieuw Kunst (new art - Art Nouveau) Faience high glaze pieces.
N. V. Plateelbakkerij Ram
As you saw in 'Collecting Dutch Delftware 3', we exhibited a Ram floor vase; here are two exceptional pieces from our Ram collection which we would like to show you. These are an extremely fine matched pair of Ram plates, measuring 28.0cm in diameter. They are in perfect condition. This pair of plates bears the signature of Herbertus Luppes, the date is circa. 1935. Luppes was one of the main decorators at the Ram factory. The information that we have is that the factory closed in 1945 however we have seen pieces of Ram with dates on for the 1950's, which we found very confusing and considered it best to leave those pieces alone until we had more information. These plates were purchased from Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Plateelbakkerij Zuid-Holland (PZH)
This is what is known as a 'Wilhelmina' plate
and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the reign of Queen Wilhelmina
of the Netherlands. The inscription round the plate is 'Vivat',
'Koningin', 'Wilhelmina' and 'Oranje' or 'Long live Wilhelmina
Queen of Orange 1898 - 1938'.
On
the stern flag (although you cannot read it from the picture)
are the words 'Moed', 'Beleid', 'Trouw' which translated means
'courage, discretion, faithful or loyal'. We would consider this
an excellent find as you very rarely see pieces such as this
coming up for sale. It is so profusely decorated and with a ship
in the centre. This the only one of this type from PZH we have
seen. The artist is probably Frederikus Petrus Brink. He was
of some standing because of the quality of the piece.
Found in an Antiques shop in Knutsford, England.
Zenith Delfts
This is a large (33.4cm) diameter plate made at the Zenith factory shortly after WW2, probably 1946. Plates like this are hardly, if ever, seen in Europe. They are very important pieces, even though they are of no great age. We were really thrilled to find and be able to purchase this plate from the United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The plate was painted by Aart Stolk whose initials (which are S around A) are in the top right-hand corner. He was a prominent designer and manager of the painting department at Zenith. Stolk also did work for Regina along-side J. W. van Schaik. During WW2 some of the workers at Zenith were seconded into forced labour by Germany. When the war ended the key workers returned to Zenith to carry on with their old trades. Stolk specialised in painting wall plates featuring portraits of old Dutch Masters especially for the American market which was probably the only market which was left at this time as the rest of Europe was too busy picking itself up off its knees after the war. This plate shows a picture of 'The Cavalier'. This was the most famous work of the Dutch painter Frans Hals and was painted by him in 1624. Hals became a favourite of the American collectors and many works by him are in American collections. Some information on plates like these can be found in Phyllis Ritvo's book 'The World of Gouda Pottery'.
Regina
Two excellent small dishes (11.0cm), painted in red delft, bearing the signature of Hendrik Antonina Meilof. Hendrik Meilof was the predominant painter of red delft at Regina where he worked from 1923 until his retirement. He had also worked at Zuid-Holland (PZH) from 1919 to 1921. Pieces like this by Meilof are very hard to find. We have never seen one at an Antiques and Collectors Fair in the UK. One was from an on-line auction site and the other purchased privately, both from Holland.
This is another piece
from the famous Regina factory, painted by Henk van Wensveen.
If you recall we had another 'Wensveen' in Part 3 with just his
initials 'vw'. This (25.5cm) tall polychrome gin decanter which
was painted at the Regina factory is in perfect condition. The
date is circa. 1970. Not very old, but it's a Wensveen piece
and generally when you see a Wensveen it 'jumps out' at you with
its striking polychrome colours and in his own characteristic
style of painting. This piece is completely decorated around
the whole body of the decanter and it is complete with cork and
stopper. We would consider it to be very collectable and indeed
an antique of the future. This was found in the United States
of America.
Information about Meilof and Wensveen can be found in the article The Regina Factory 1898 -1979 by Joop Nobel, one of the leading experts on Regina pottery.
Workum Makkum
This (16.0cm) diameter dish was made at the
Ardewerkfabriek Workum factory. Even though it has 'Makkum' on
the shield it was made in Workum by Sikke F. Doting as denoted
by the SD below the 'Makkum.' This is what is known as a Workum
Makkum dish. It is tin glazed in the faience style. Sadly there
is no artist's signature. The factory was founded in 1967 and
employs very few artists who were all trained by S.F.Doting.
We have seen some fine pieces from this factory coming on to
the market recently and would predict that these will become
very collectable. This piece was found at an Antiques and Collectables
Fair.
"We hope that you have found this interesting, especially to any of you who are new collectors of Delftware."
Doreen and George Gallimore - April 2004
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