JVV 0503
Delft, 1761-1773
The Old Moors Head pottery
Mark: G.V.S., period of Geertrui Verstelle (1761-1773)
The flower vase of the quintel model has an interconnected, five-lobed body, crowned at the top with five necks forming a fan-shaped row of spouts. The flower vase stands on a waisted, spreading foot and has scroll handles. A floral decoration of various plants issuing from a ground with a fence is applied to the body on both sides. In the sky, two butterflies flutter. The spouts are painted on both sides with a floral branch. The openings are highlighted in blue. Around the base and on the handles are leaf motifs, reserved on a blue fond.
Dimensions: height 20 cm / 7.87 in., length 19,5 cm / 7.67 in.
Similar examples
A very similar example with a five-lobed body without handles in the collection of Uppark (South Harting, Petersfield, West Sussex), The National Trust, Meade-Fetherstonhaugh Collection (inv. no. NT/UPP/C/94B) is illustrated in Vases with spouts (pp. 207-208, no. 7.03). This flower holder is marked AIK for Jacob van de Kool, owner of the Grecian A from 1722 to 1757.
Explanatory note
The model of a fan-shaped flower vase with a single row of spouts is called quintel. According to Van Aken (p. 205), two main forms developed from this: the oval-shaped and the heart-shaped flower vase. This flower vase belongs to the oval-shaped type. Until now, no specimens were known from the Old Moors Head pottery.
The 2007 publication Vases with Spouts by the Art Museum of The Hague documents, analyses and groups spouted flower vases made in Delft from 1680-1740. The year 1740 suggests that no flower vases were made in Delft after that. The present marked example from the period of Geertrui Verstelle shows that flower vases were made in Delft at least until the 1760s. The AIK-marked specimen from Uppark is dated between 1725 and 1740, but, given its strong similarity, can probably be dated later, even to after 1750.
That spouted flower vases continued to be made in Delft after 1750, perhaps on a limited scale, is not remarkable. The demand for flower vases of any kind only increased in the second half of the eighteenth century, no longer for an elite but for a broad middle group. In France, in tin-glazed earthenware, examples are known from several production centres such as Strasbourg and Moustiers. But especially in English earthenware and stoneware, large numbers of flower vases were produced in this period, which were also exported to the Netherlands.
Literature
M.S. van Aken-Fehmers, Delfts aardewerk. Geschiedenis van een nationaal product. Deel IV. Vazen met tuiten. 300 jaar pronkstukken. Dutch Delftware. History of a National Product. Volume IV. Vases with Spouts. Three Centuries of Splendour, The Hague / Zwolle 2007
Reserved
