JVV 0030
Delft, 1750-1775
The Porcelain Ewer pottery
Mark: LPK
The fruit dish and stand have an oval, octagonal shape. The rim is molded in relief with branches and shells. The fruit dish stands on three small feet, the handles are made up of a shell between two S-scrolls. The set is painted in blue with flower motifs on a light blue tin-glaze ground. On the slightly curved centre of the stand a reserved octagonal panel is painted with a flower, floral sprays and sprigs. The octagonal rim is alternately decorated with two different flower motifs. The fruit dish with a pierced center is painted in a similar way as the stand, the underside with diamonds and sprigs.
Dimensions: Fruit dish: length 28.3 cm / 11.14 in., width 22.3 cm / 8.77 in., height 8.4 cm / 3.30 in.; stand: length 26.3 cm / 10.35 in., width 22.3 cm / 8.77 in., height 3.4 cm / 1.33 in.
Height of fruit dish on stand: 9,4 cm / 3.70 in.
Condition: fruit dish: large shard glued in rim, some wear to holes, rim and handles, glaze loss at three holes from underside. Stand: restoration to rim, two glued hairline cracks starting from restored rim, wear to rim.
Similar examples
A comparable set is in the collection of the Musée Ariana in Geneva, published in Schumacher (p. 34). It is marked YVDUYN for Johannes van Duin, owner of The Porcelain Dish pottery from 1764 to 1773. Other examples are a set made by The Porcelain Axe pottery in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Twenthe, depicted by Lunsingh Scheurleer (p. 206) and two 1761 dated sets by The Porcelain Bottle pottery. The latter are part of the Lavino collection (p. 169, upper picture).
Explanatory note
Fruit dishes were used for soft fruit like strawberries, blackberries and raspberries that needed to be washed before consumption. The washed and wet fruit was laid on the dish and stand and could be placed on the table immediately. In eighteenth century sources they are referred to as "aarre bijen testen” (Eliëns, p. 124), which means ‘strawberry dishes’. To Judge from the surviving examples, they must have been popular and frequently used items. Besides oval fruit dishes, also round and hexagonal ones were part of the delftware production range.They were also manufactured outside Delft. Marked examples are known from the Arnhem delftware pottery which operated between 1759 and 1771 (Duysters, pp. 114-115, 170-175). Furthermore a round fruit dish without stand painted by Gatse Sytses between 1760 and 1770 is a rare example made in the Tichelaar family pottery in Makkum, province of Friesland. It is in the collection of the Princessehof Ceramics Museum (inventory number OKS 2005-054) in Leeuwarden.
Literature
Christie’s Amsterdam, European ceramics, Dutch delftware and glass, 10 may 2001 (sale 2507), Amsterdam 2001
K. Duysters (ed.), Arnhemse faience (1759-ca. 1770). Een Europees avontuur, Zwolle 2008
T.M. Eliëns (ed.), Delfts aardewerk. Geschiedenis van een nationaal product, deel II, Zwolle/The Hague 2001
M. Lavino, The Lavino collection, Lokeren n.d.
D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Delft. Niederländische Fayence, Munich 1984
A.-C. Schumacher, La donation Clare van Beusekom-Hamburger. Faïences et porcelaines des XVIe – XVIIIe siècle, Geneva 2010
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