Tile - 1750-1800, 1800-1850 - Manganese tile panel

Delft manganese tile panel with an equestrian Prince of Orange, circa 1800

A Dutch Delft manganese-decorated tile panel (3 x 2 tiles) depicting a rider on a rearing horse in a military landscape, with a fortified tower and soldiers firing in the background. The scene is painted in a deep purple manganese on a white tin-glazed ground.

The composition closely relates to a documented example in the collection of the Museum Prinsenhof Delft (inv. no. LM 195), where the figure is identified by inscription as Willem Karel Hendrik Friso, Prince of Orange (Willem IV). The present panel, executed in reverse and lacking an inscription, appears to derive from the same pictorial model, likely based on an 18th-century print source.

Although the identification as William IV of Orange is therefore plausible, it cannot be stated with absolute certainty due to the absence of an inscription. The panel may also be interpreted as a more generalised equestrian portrait within the Dutch tile-painting tradition.

Condition: wear, frittings and craquelure consistent with age, two restorations (tile 3 and 4)

39.5 x 26.5 cm.