A fine Dutch Delft blue and white plaque with a jester after Hendrick Goltzius, 18th C.

Dim.: 30 x 21,5 cm

Ref.:
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Object number BK-NM-12400-441, for a related polychrome plaque depicting the same jester with a flower. (link)
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Object number BK-NM-12400-441, for the engraving by Hendrick Goltzius after which the current plaque was painted. The engraving is accompanied of a text which refers to 'ooren an naijen' (freely translated as 'sewing on ears'), a Dutch saying related to pranking someone. The painter of the Delft plaque offered here has added a bell to the ear of the jester as well. (link)

Provenance: The 'Gaston de Ramaix' collection, Château de Grune, Belgium. The collectors Maurice de Ramaix (1850-1918) (link), a Belgian diplomat and politician, and his son Gaston built a collection of mostly blue and white pieces from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. De Ramaix was a diplomatic attaché in Paris, Constantinople, Vienna, Berlin, The Hague and Persia. Afterward, he returned to Belgium where he became a senator and a member of the Parliament. In 1894, he bought and restored a castle in Grune, Belgium. After his death, De Ramaix’s collection was passed to his eldest son, Gaston (1878-1937), who was also a diplomat. Gaston had a predilection for the Dutch Golden Age and completed his father’s collection. He showcased the remarkable assemblage of Delftware in his seventeenth-century castle surrounded by Dutch paintings and prints from the same era.