Having not yet visited a Delftware factory, we thought that would be a good thing to do while Mary and John were here. Even if you didn't know it was Delftware, you have probably seen the ubiquitous blue and white pottery. We walked to Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles. Royal Delft is the only remaining factory from the 17th century, established in 1653. There are more modern factories in town.
It was pouring rain, as you can see from Eliot's hair. We arrived just in time for the 4:00 tour. All pottery at this factory, the only remaining location, is hand painted. The pottery is fired once, then painted on with blue paint that appears black, and fired a second time.
The pottery is also made in other beautiful colors: polychrome, pijnacker, Delft black, and their special color with a beautiful turquoise. Unlike the porcelain it was copying from China, Delftware is actually pottery. In its heyday, this company had over 200 factories in Delft. This is the 400th birthday of Rembrandt, so there were a lot of pieces celebrating his life and artwork. This is a tile tableau (35 tiles) of Nightwatch that one artist was working on while we toured the factory. Not sure what the story was for this Delftware cow, but we liked it! Gina recently told us that cows say "boo, boo" in Dutch.
posted by Whitney @ 6:38 AM
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