Tile (7) - 1800-1850 - Delftware

Blue monochrome glazed earthenware tiles, decorated in blue on white tin glaze, in the so‑called « Delftware » style, from the United Provinces or the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in the 18th century.

These seven ceramic tiles, each 13 cm in side, are painted in cobalt blue on a tin-white background according to the grand feu technique characteristic of production so‑called « Delftware », a term that designates, in reality, all tiles manufactured in the Netherlands — Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Friesland — but also in the north of France (Lille, Desvres) and in Belgium, an expression that more often denotes a style than a precise geographic origin. Each tile presents a central motif painted freehand, surrounded at the four corners by a secondary motif known as an « spider » or « corner flower », consisting of a rosette with spiral petals or of small stylized flowers that visually link the tiles when laid in a continuous surface.

The subjects depicted on these seven pieces belong to the most classical repertoire of eighteenth‑century Dutch tile production: several landscape scenes with houses and chimneys smoking, trees and hedges evoking the countryside or the banks of Dutch canals; a marine scene with a figure paddling a boat in the presence of sailing ships and a mill in the background; a landscape with a church spire on a hill surrounded by water; finally, a singular example where the central motif is enclosed in a circular medallion, a rarer composition called a « tondo », representing a port with sailing ships and buildings. This variety of subjects within the same lot is characteristic of series produced to decorate kitchen walls, bedrooms or fireplaces, where different motifs freely alternated.

The network of crazing visible on several pieces, the nicks at the corners, irregularities of the white glaze and deposits of lime and earth on the backs are all convergent signs of age. The freedom and vivacity of the line, the way the blue intensity varies with the thickness of the brushstroke, and the slightly asymmetrical composition of the scenes confirm an entirely handmade execution. These tiles date from the first half or the middle of the eighteenth century, a flourishing period for this production, whose European elites, from Portuguese princes to Russian tsars, adorned their interiors.