An exceptional blue and white Amsterdam Delft mythological plaque, dated 1748

Amsterdam, attributed to the tile factory ‘d’Oude Prins’ (The old Prince) in the Anjeliersstraat.
Painter: attributed to Pieter van der Kloet or monogrammist G.V.M.
Dated: 1748 

The lozenge-shaped plaque has a raised rim and indented corners which are painted with flower motifs in tapered cartouches.
It is finely painted with ‘the musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas’. Apollo with his lyre and the flute-playing Marsyas are sitting on rocks in the middle, between them stands a muse who holds a crown and a dagger. The dagger points to Marsyas who will lose the contest and will be skinned alive afterwards. The other muses are sitting at both sides and act as a jury.  At the bottom the mythological story is bordered by a marbled plane with a cartouche containing a mirror-monogram with the letters A and M. The double rim is painted with floral motifs, linked  S-shaped ribbons and half flowers, all saved on a blue ground. 

A group of ten lozenge-shaped plaques with indented corners are known from Amsterdam. Four of them are dated 1736, 1748, 1750 and 1751, including this plaque. The group varies in size, shape of the rim, cartouches, quality of painting and subject matter, but are most likely made in the same factory.

One of the plaques has the monogram of an unknown painter G.V.M. to the backside, one other plaque is monogrammed PvK or PvdK, presumably the monogram of Pieter van der Kloet. Compared with plaques made in Delft, these plaques stand out in two ways.

Stylistically they are more related to tiles, tiles pictures and shapes known to Amsterdam, than to Delft examples. Secondly, there are important differences in production techniques. Delft plaques are molded in plaster molds and fired on pins in saggars. The plaques from Amsterdam were not fired in saggars, but were standing on their sides on two small clay cylinders between rows of tiles. The back of the plaques was leaning against the rows. These production differences leave other marks on the plaques then the pin marks on Delft plaques and are important keys to establish Delft from non-Delft production.  Using molds enables a Delftware pottery to produce the same shape over again, up to dozens or even hundreds, depending on how long the molds could be used.

The Amsterdam plaques are all handmade and can therefore be considered as incidental products instead of regular production.  Of the ten plaques one similar of same dimensions and cartouche is known in a private collection (Van Dam 1999, p. 41, fig. 11). Only the mirror-monogram is different. This plaque has also a mythological scene and is dated 1736.  Eight out of ten plaques are stylistically strongly related and most likely from the same hand, most probably Pieter van der Kloet, however we cannot exclude monogrammist G.V.M. 

Pieter van der Kloet was the owner of the tile factory ‘d’Oude Prins’ in Amsterdam. He is known as a painter of faience, because a fully signed and 1728 dated plaque is preserved in the Amsterdam Museum (inventorynumber KA 19434). He was fifteen when he painted this plaque. More important, four drawings from his hand are also known, all fully signed and dated 1773 (2x), 1776 and 1777.  These drawings – cityscapes and landscapes – show a strong resemblance with tiles, tiles pictures, plaques and other shapes that are attributed to Amsterdam. Therefore these drawings are a key and essential in attributing work to Pieter van der Kloet. 

Condition: A restored crack. 
Dimensions from side to side 38 cm x 38 cm. 
Literature: Jan Daniël van Dam, ‘’Delfts’ uit de provincie. Aardewerk uit Hollandse tegelfabrieken’ in: Vormen uit Vuur (1999/3-4), pp. 23-24, 32-62. 

Text by: Jaap Jongstra MA, ceramics specialist and researcher of tile factories in Amsterdam.

With special thanks to Mr. Rainer G. Richter from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden.