Polychrome Delftware Wall Plaque with Bird and Flower Basket Delft, circa 1750

Polychrome Delftware Wall Plaque with Bird and Flower Basket
Delft, circa 1750

This antique eighteenth-century Dutch Delftware wall plaque is made of tin-glazed earthenware and painted in blue, green, yellow, iron-red and manganese. The lozenge-shaped plaque has a raised, self-framing border and is pierced at the top with two holes for suspension.

The centre is painted with an exotic bird perched among flowering branches rising from a rectangular basket. The flowers and foliage are enclosed within a shaped cartouche outlined in yellow and green scrollwork. Large stylised flower heads interrupt the surrounding blue diaper-patterned ground, while the outer border is decorated with continuous scrolling ornament in blue, yellow and iron-red.

The combination of an exotic bird, abundant flowers and geometric patterning reflects the continuing influence of Chinese and Japanese porcelain on mid-eighteenth-century Delftware. Delft painters did not simply reproduce Asian designs, but combined individual motifs with European cartouches, scrollwork and shaped borders to create new decorative compositions.

Wall plaques of this type were produced specifically for display. In contemporary household inventories they were sometimes described as porceleine schilderijen, or “porcelain paintings”, reflecting their role as ceramic counterparts to framed paintings. By the eighteenth century, Delft potters increasingly formed plaques in moulds with pronounced outlines and integrated decorative borders, creating complete, self-framed objects for the interior.

With its strong polychrome palette, lively bird and flower decoration and compact 26 cm format, this shaped Delft plaque is a decorative example of Dutch chinoiserie ceramics from around 1750.

Dimensions: 26 × 26 cm (10.2 × 10.2 in.)

Condition: Restoration to one corner. Some minor retouches and wear to the rim consistent with age.