A fine Dutch Delft blue and white 'Commedia dell'arte' bowl, dated 1720

Dia.: 30,5 cm - H.: 14,5 cm

Dated 1720 and marked AR on the base, probably for Adriaa(e)n (van) Rijsselberg(h), De Grieksche A workshop, Delft, 1701-1735. The base also with an artemisia leaf.

Provenance: With a label on the base 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.