A large Dutch Delft blue and white armorial relief-decorated plaque, early 18th C.

Dim.: 37 x 26 x 17 cm

Decorated with the arms of the 'Gaal' family'.

Ref.: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Object number BK-NM-12400-15, for a similar example with the same coat of arms. The chinoiserie-decorated panel on the lower part of the museum's example is different to our current example. The museum's example shows important restoration in this section, so this one has likely also have served as an applique. The suspension hole on our current example appears to have been widened, the rocaille element on the upper part is missing.

Provenance: With a label inscribed Ramaix on the back for 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.