Delft, circa 1680-1700

Garniture of two bottle vases and a lidded vase with Chinoiserie decoration

Earthenware, heights 39.5 and 47 cm

Each vase marked ‘10’ on the bottom

Provenance
Private collection, The Netherlands

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This garniture of two bottle vases and one lidded vase is decorated in blue with identical extremely rare scenes of a dignitary attended by a Black servant carrying a parasol on one side, and a more usual scene of a dignitary attended by an Oriental servant holding a fan on the other side; a similar scene with an Oriental attendant occurs on a charger by the De Metaale Pot Delft factory of circa 1680-1690 in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.¹ Painted in Delft around 1680-1700, such decorations were strongly influenced by Chinese models from the Transitional Period and by Japanese imitations of such Chinese models, which were imported in great numbers by the VOC, the Dutch East India Company. It appears, however, that the introduction of Black servants was an original Dutch invention, as such coloured people are not recorded on Chinese or Japanese examples.

The presence of Black servants or slaves in the highest echelons of Dutch society is well documented. Relatively little is known however about their presence in Delft during the period that these vases were made. A portrait of an unidentified lady by the Delft society painter Jan Verkolje (1650–1693) includes a Black servant attending the lady, who presumably lived in Delft. Dated 1676, this portrait from the collection of White Rose Fine Art has recently been acquired by the Kunstmuseum in The Hague. The features of the servant are quite specific and are sympathetically rendered and it is likely that Verkolje painted an actual model, who would have attracted much attention in Delft and could even have been known to the painters of the earthenware factories.

SOLD TO THE KUNSTMUSEUM (FORMERLY GEMEENTEMUSEUM), THE HAGUE

1. Earthenware, diameter 30.5 cm, inv. no. BK-1983-16.