1754

Details

A rare Dutch Delft mixed technique dated puzzle jug
1754
Fopkan, the baluster body decorated in blue and white with a floral foliate rocaille cartouche with a large shell and depicting a river landscape with a two-master vessel flanked by fortified architectural structures on the shores and a distant windmill to the background, a rose branch and two small insects to the reverse, the neck with floral scrolled pierced openwork in yellow, red and green on a dark manganese-red ground and dated 1754 on a shield underneath the handle, the tubular blue and white rim with three spouts, with floral loop handle (two small chips)
21.7 cm. high

Provenance

Dutch Delft from the Collection of the late A. Vromen Jr., Christie's Laren, The Netherlands, 24 October 1979, lot 2807.
The present owner.

Literature

Jkvr. C.H. de Jonge, 'Delfts Aardewerk, Een particuliere verzameling Delfts aardewerk' (Collectie A. Vromen Jr.), Mededelingenblad Vrienden van de Nederlandse Ceramiek, no.48, 1967, ill. 33, p. 38.
H. Morley-Fletcher & R. McIlroy, Christie's Pictorial History of European Pottery, Oxford, 1984, ill. 3, p. 215.

Exhibited

Tentoonstelling Meesterwerken uit Delft, Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft, 2 June- 15 August 1962, nr. 191.

Special notice

Christie's charge a premium to the buyer on the final bid price of each lot sold at the following rates: 23.8% of the final bid price of each lot sold up to and including €150,000 and 14.28% of any amount in excess of €150,000. Buyers' premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.

Further details

END OF AFTERNOON SESSION

Lot Essay

Puzzle jugs were used as curiosities for entertainment, because one cannot drink from these jars normally. The spouts are connected to the body through the hollow handle. If the jug is tilted to the back and one drinks from one spout while one closes the other two, the liquid can be retrieved from the jug. Dated puzzle jugs were probably individually ordered for special occasions.

For examples of puzzle jugs with European-subject decoration see:
M.S. van Aken-Fehmers a.o., Delfts Aardewerk, Geschiedenis van een nationaal product, Volume I, Zwolle, 1999, cat. no. 105, p. 263, the jug dated 1758; D. & R. Aronson, Dutch Delftware, Amsterdam, 2005, cat. no. 43, p. 46; J. D. van Dam, Dated Dutch Delftware, Amsterdam, 1991, cat. no. 62, ill. p. 129, the jug dated 1768.

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