JVV 0580
Delft, 1750-1800
The Porcelain Axe pottery
Mark: an axe
The octagonal garniture consists of three baluster-shaped vases with lids and two beaker vases. The domed lids have a knob in the shape of a berry-eating parrot on a stump. The garniture is painted in blue with a woman and a goat in a water landscape. The decoration is framed by a cartouche of relief-modelled C and S volutes. A flower branch is depicted on the front of the short neck. The back of the vases is painted with a leaf branch.
Dimensions: height 26,5 cm / 10.43 in. (beaker vase), 38 cm / 14.96 in. (vase with lid)
Explanatory note
In the second half of the seventeenth century the custom arose of placing vases, bowls and other types of porcelain or Dutch delftware on top of cupboards or above fireplaces. Garnitures – a typically Dutch phenomenon – was developed out of this habit. It consists of a related set of covered jars, beaker vases and in some cases bottle vases, with the same decoration. The first garnitures were made in the 1690s. They remained popular during the entire eighteenth century: garnitures belonged to the standard repertoire of nearly every Delftware pottery.
