Delft It is a city that ceramic collectors will be familiar with. And it is because this picturesque city in the province of South Holland (Zuid-Holland) is best known for its blue and white glazed pottery known as Delftware.
She was introduced to Holland by immigrant Italian potters who brought with them their majolica (Italian tin and glazed pottery) pottery skills. They were installed around Delft and Haarlem in the 16th century, making wall tiles incorporating Dutch motifs such as flowers and animals as ornaments.
In the 17th century, when the East India Company activated trade with the Orient, it took millions of pieces of Chinese pottery including samples of very fine blue and white porcelain which became very popular.
Thereafter, the demand for thick Dutch majolica declined so Dutch potters began to adopt finer Chinese methods for their plates, vases and other pots. The truth is that fine Chinese porcelain was in vogue in Europe during that period and there were 32 thriving Delftware workshops of the time. Today only two remain: Delftse De Pauw and Fles Porceleyn.
The city of Delft which was once the world center for the production of beautiful ceramics called Royal Delft Pottery. In the mid-18th century, some 32 ceramic production factories in the Netherlands Delft. Today, there is only one: the Royal Delft Netherlands Ceramic Porcelain Factory (Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles).
Shopping for Delft pottery
If one is interested in this type of pottery, forget the cheap imitations in the gift shops and just take a trip to a factory in Delft where you can learn more about it as well as buy the authentic hand-painted pottery. Traditional Delft at factory prices.
There are direct trains from The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam to Delft, as well as buses from The Hague and Rotterdam.