Beautiful medium sized (23,5 cm diameter) handpainted plate made in 1968 by De Porceleyne Fles in Delft, the Netherlands. The plate is painted in the rare red crackle-glaze style (in Dutch: Rood Craquelé), which was only produced in limited numbers by De Porceleyne Fles during the period 1947 - 1968. The decoration shows a stylised design of two fish among water plants. The painting is very well done and the design is striking.
The production of crackle-glaze ceramics at De Porceleyne Fles involved three firings: first the 'bisque firing' for creating the earthenware body, then a 'smooth firing' for applying the crackle glaze and then a third and final firing after the application of the decoration to the glaze. The red colour of the decoration was obtained by allowing oxygen into the kiln during the cooling stage of the last firing. As a variation green crackle-glaze and white crackle-glaze were also produced in limited numbers (so even more rare than the red crackle-glaze).
All decorations on the crackle-glaze ceramics were designed by Mr Cornelius Hartog, who worked as a painter/designer at De Porceleyne Fles from 1920 to 1965. The decorations featured stylised floral and animal motifs, or sometimes geometric patterns. Three years after Hartog passed away in 1965, De Porceleyne Fles discontinued the production of crackle-glaze items.
The backside of the plate is signed with a handpainted Porceleyne Fles Delft mark, a batch number (1136), a painter's signature (HW of Mr H.J.A. Weinberg who worked from 1938 to 1971 as a painter at De Porceleyne Fles), and a year code (CM = 1968). The plate has two small holes in its footring with a metal wire through it to hang it on a wall.
Condition: excellent, there are no damages, cracks, hairlines or restorations. There is no visible wear to the glaze. Some parts of the mark on the backside have a bit faded look, this is not because of wear, but is because for some reason the paint did not hold properly there during firing. The glaze has a beautiful matte gloss and the colours are strong and beautiful.
A rare plate from the last year crackle-glaze items were produced by De Porceleyne Fles. Highly collectible. It will look great on a wall, but also on its own upright in a plate stand. The perspex stand featured on the pictures will be included with the plate.
Made by: De Porceleyne Fles
Place of manufacture: Delft, the Netherlands
Year of manufacture: 1968
Method of decoration: handpainted (underglaze)
Size: diameter 23,5 cm, depth: 3,1 cm
Weight: 660 g
Additional pictures of the object can be provided if required.
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About De Porceleyne Fles:
De Porceleyne Fles (also known as Royal Delft) is the most renowned Delftware factory in the Netherlands that still produces handpainted Delftware today. It is the only remaining factory of the 32 earthenware factories that were established in Delft during the 17th century. Founded in 1653, it has been active without interruption for over 365 years.
The quality of the painting of De Porceleyne Fles (PF) Delftware is very high, with painters receiving many years of training before they can start painting the designs. It takes no less than ten years of training / experience to become a 'master painter', who paint the more complicated designs and landscapes / sceneries.
De Porceleyne Fles produces Delftware in a variety of styles, which include beside the well-known blue and white (Delft blue) style amongst others a polychrome style, an imari style (Pijnacker), a green style (Delvert) and a 'famille Noire' style (Black Delft). A characteristic of the glaze used by PF is that it tends to craze with age a bit more than compared with other Delftware producers. So older items of PF are virtually always crazed to some extent, which does add charm to the object and should not be considered a defect.
Besides the traditional (and expensive) handpainted Delftware PF nowadays also produces more modern and affordable lines of Delftware whereby the decoration is put onto the product by hand by means of a screenprinted transfer. These products are then called "handmade" instead of "handpainted".
More information can be found on the website of Royal Delft: https://www.royaldelft.com/en/.
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This beautiful item will be carefully packed and send by tracked and insured mail.
If you buy multiple items from our shop in one purchase, we will try to combine the items into one parcel. Any excess shipping costs will be refunded.
If you are not satisfied with your purchase, you may contact us within 14 days from the delivery date to return the item. If the item is returned in its original condition, we will issue a refund for the total purchase price of the item (return shipping costs are however not covered).
1-2 business days
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Just contact me within: 14 days of delivery
Ship items back to me within: 30 days of delivery
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Buyers are responsible for return shipping costs. If the item is not returned in its original condition, the buyer is responsible for any loss in value.
We will send off your order within one or two working days. We use the standard parcel service of PostNL to ship our parcels. You can find their estimated delivery times per country here www.postnl.nl/en/customer-service/international-delivery-times-post-and-parcels/. In the fourth column you can find the delivery times of the standard service (in estimated business / working days). Please keep in mind that customs / import procedures in non-EU countries can sometimes add an extra week (or even two weeks) to the delivery times.
On request we can also ship with UPS for a faster delivery: expedited (within 10 days) or express (within a few days). There are no custom delays when shipping with UPS. Contact us before the purchase to get a quote.
Broken ceramics is a thing we do not like! Not only is it a waste of time and money, but it also (often) means the end for a rare and unique item, which was treasured and cared for by their previous owners. So we really want to avoid any damages during shipping!
We have lots of experience of shipping ceramics, and we have seen what works and what does not work to protect ceramics during transit. If we ship multiple items in one package, each item is carefully wrapped and kept well seperated from the other items. We use large boxes, with plenty of buffer all around the items, so the packages can withstand a lot of abuse. All our packages should be able to cope with a 1,5 m drop without the items getting damaged.
Yes we do. We re-use packaging materials as much as possible, which means we rarely have to buy new materials for our packaging. Only foam peanuts are sometimes bought by us, in which case we choose starch based peanuts which are fully biodegradable, non-toxic and water-soluble.
Each year, we calculate the greenhouse gas emissions in CO2-equivalents caused by our shipping. We multiply that amount by 150% and then offset it in certified CO2 compensation projects based on tree planting / reforestation in Bolivia and Uganda. See https://treesforall.nl/en/project/ for more information on the projects.
First of all, don't let them fall! Always handle them in a mindful way and put them in spots where they cannot be accidentally bumped over when cleaning or vacuuming. Some people put some (clean) sand in vases to make them more stable.
Second, don't clean them too often! Underglaze painted Gouda and Delftware can be perfectly cleaned with water if necessary, but often just dusting them off or polishing them up a bit with a soft dry cloth is enough. Overglaze painted items should not be cleaned too often.
The colours of ceramics do not fade in sunlight, so you can put them in bright spots where they look good. But do avoid large temperature differences, which will cause increased crazing in many Delftware and also Gouda type pieces.