Delftware

This is soft bodied earthenware fired at a relatively low temperature and covered with a tin glaze. The body is porous to liquids where it is not covered by the glaze and is also prone to damage. Decoration is usually of blue and white and would have been applied swiftly and skilfully by the decorator so it would not smudge over a layer of a tin oxide based glaze prior to firing. Other colours were also applied but these tend to be rarer.
 
The term Delft comes from the place in Holland which is associated with the manufacture of this kind of ware. During the 17^th century Chinese blue and white porcelain was very popular with the Dutch in particular and presumably they were buying the imported wares in preference to those of the local potters who were quick to produce copies using the techniques which they had available to them at the time. In fact decoratively they were very good imitations and look much more like the originals than the later Chinese pieces which try to copy the earlier styles. The Dutch potters tended to make pieces in imitation of Chinese wares from the Wanli period through the transitional and into the Kangxi. Copies of Japanese patterns were also being produced later on in the century and into the early eighteenth century. They exported many of these to Britain where the oriental blue and white was also very popular. 

However the production of Delft type wares had been going on in Europe for some time. The technique was first brought to Spain and Italy from the Middle East and China some time toward the beginning of the second millennium. Decoration was in the styles of both Moorish Spain and of Italy. This ware became known as maiolica after Majorca through which the original eastern wares were imported. 

The technique then appeared in northern Europe early in the 16^th century when a potter called Guido Andries started production in Antwerp. It is thought that Guido Andries was in fact an Italian potter called Guido da Savino who had left Castel Durante in Italy bringing, what were probably close guarded secrets at that time, with him. Members of his family then started to branch out into the north of Holland. One of whom, Jasper Andries, came to England and started production at Norwich in 1567. Several years later he moved to London and started production there but as time went by this Tin Glazed Earthenware, as it is also known, began to be produced around the country at places such as Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow and Dublin in Southern Ireland. The early wares tended to resemble the Italian style in decoration and were known in France and Germany as faience after Faenza the port in Italy where the Italian wares would have been exported. 

A wide range of items were made from simple plates and jars to elaborate models of animals etc. Prices can range from a few pounds for a plate in poor condition to tens of thousands of pounds for a rare commemorative piece or model animal. British Delft is rarely marked with a maker’s name but it is usually possible to establish the origin of a piece by observing differences in style and of the body, which would have been made from the local clay, and by workmen’s marks and the such.