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Delftware

Delftware is the name given to tin glazed earthernware of Dutch manufacture. It is the cousin to French and Belgian faience and Italian maiolica, which have a similar opaque white glaze onto which decoration is applied.

Delftware is still manufactured today but its heyday was in the 17th and 18th centuries when its decorative forms emulated Chinese porcelain exported to the West via the Dutch East India Company. It was made in numerous factories in the Netherlands including the city of Delft.

Tin glaze earthenwares of similar type made in Britain are also known as delftware. London and Bristol were important centres of manufacture.


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18th century dentist's delftware ointment jar gives added bite to auction

13 July 2020

This rare 2in (5cm) English delftware ointment pot, c.1775, carries the inscription in manganese 'The Queen’s Dentifrice'.

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Desirable Dutch and English delft lead ceramics attractions in Derby and Newbury

08 June 2020

This 8½in (21cm) Delft blue and white tulip vase below is typical in style and form of the De Metale Pot (The Metal Pot) factory.

Delft blue and white tulip vase

Delft tulip vase and Victorian carriage clock are among five auction highlights that caught bidders’ eyes

29 May 2020

ATG’s selection of hammer highlights this week includes a late 17th century Delft blue and white tulip vase that made over 25-times estimate and a 19th century carriage clock which may have been a gift from Florence Nightingale.

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Beer jug celebrating Glorious Revolution makes 20-times estimate

24 February 2020

A Westerwald salt-glaze jug offered at Reeman Dansie's latest sale in Colchester was worked with stylised tulips and a medallion with the portraits of William of Orange and Queen Mary.

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Versailles steps in for Sabine cast

13 January 2020

Palace uses power of pre-emption to buy cast of Giambologna’s seminal sculpture at auction.

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Warner collection sale: English items assembled over nearly four decades produce suitable results

14 October 2019

Market freshness, provenance and attractive estimates were the features that held sway to ensure a high selling rate for a single-owner collection of British delftwares offered at Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium).

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The Warner collection of delftware

02 September 2019

Market freshness and well-regarded primary and secondary provenances distinguish the 250-300 pieces of early English delftware to be offered for sale by Woolley & Wallis in a stand-alone auction in Salisbury on September 17.

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VOGEL AND OLIVE COLLECTIONS: Two auctions showing the highs and the lows of traditional markets

25 February 2019

The sale of two great collections at auction – one in London, the other in New York – has highlighted the ebbs and flows of the market for early British pottery and furniture.

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Form and function makes the difference for 17th century ceramics and metalwork

25 February 2019

The models used in 17th century ceramics were typically derived from contemporary metalwork – and occasionally vice versa.

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Market undulations for English delft and Staffordshire highlighted at Pelham Olive auction

25 February 2019

Pictured here are three pieces from the Pelham Olive collection sold by Bonhams on January 31. Two are early English delft and are prize examples because they are inscribed and dated. The third is an example of Staffordshire slipware.

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English delftware tankard raises toast to the Pelham Olive collection at Bonhams

04 February 2019

Among the best performers at the Olive collection of early British ceramics, metalwork, furniture and treen sold at Bonhams on January 31 was this large English delftware tankard.

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Antique dealer's son to auction extensive collection of oak furniture and delftware at Bonhams

09 January 2019

A fine collection of antique oak furniture, treen and delftware owned by Pelham Olive, the son of dealer and co-founder of the Regional Furniture Society Gabriel Olive, is to be sold at Bonhams.

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Delft touch on both sides of the Atlantic

15 May 2017

Inscriptions and/or dates add a premium in many classes of ceramics but especially so in delftware. Some afficionados such as the late Syd Levethan made this a particular goal for their collecting.

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Pick of the Week: Royalist rarity takes £20,000

18 March 2017

Estimated at £1500-2000, this rare English delft dish sold for £20,000 (plus 22.5% buyer’s premium) at Cheffins in Cambridge on March 8.

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Stunning delft chargers take £34,500 in Exeter

14 May 2015

The two outstanding blue dash chargers offered at a recent sale held by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter form part of a small but distinctive group of early 18th century delft dishes boldly painted with a variety of quirky bird, animal and figure subjects.

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Delft discovery on show at upcoming New York fair

15 January 2015

Delftware experts Aronson of Amsterdam have recently reunited this pair of c.1690 Delft ‘bouquetière’ figures depicting William and Mary.

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English delftware remembering a difficult year for George II – and the Queen’s teeth

20 June 2014

The year 1737 was something of an annus horribilis for George II.

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Mug shows high demand for the best of English delftware

27 June 2011

ANY perception that the demand for top English delftwares had softened seems to have been scotched by the huge competition for this 17th century London-made mug.

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Stolen tiles may come to UK

01 November 2010

PICTURED here is one of more than 100 polychrome Delft tiles, valued at hundreds of thousands of pounds, stolen from a leading collector in the Netherlands.

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Sainsbury sale proves object lesson for restrained taste

23 June 2008

Christie’s English furniture day on June 18 was marked by the £9m auction of a dozen pieces of top-flight examples and by the 369-lot £13.6m sale of the collection of the late Simon Sainsbury.