THE EICHHORN COLLECTION OF WHITE CERAMICS
White Delft has only been rediscovered in the beginning of this century. The harmonious shapes, the simplicity and the purity of the white hues were very appealing for the modern collectors. White Delft earthenware is a somewhat misleading nomenclature since it suggests that all this pottery was made in Delft, a kind of poor brother of the popular blue and white or polychrome decorated ware for which this city earned international fame. In fact, potters began producing white domestic ware in the Italian town of Faenza in the second half of the 16th Century. It was probably a combination of Dutch entrepreneurship and the calvinistic doctrine of sobriety that made Dutch potters appreciate that there was a lively market for white earthenware made in Delft but in other Dutch cities too. In the early years, the tendency was to copy Italian earthenware. Therefore it is very difficult to authentify white ware. Gradually the objects gained an unmistakably Dutch character. Models of objects made from pewter, glass or silver, were taken as examples. A wide range of objects was produced. Simple white crockery was used as kitchenware and is quite rare as a result. On the other hand, various figural objects, gadrooned chargers and silver-mounted jugs, were considered as luxury items. Painters of the Dutch Golden Age such as; Vermeer, Terborch, de Hooch, or Steen and Metsu regularly depicted white Delft in their interiors. Famous collectors such as J.F. Loudon and F.E. Vlielander Hein were some of the few collectors who were interested in white Delft before the first World War. Fine collections are those in the Hague Gemeentemuseum including the van den Bergh and the Vlielander Hein collections, the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum containing interesting examples from the Loudon collection and the Kröller-Müller Museum collection which was built up by the important art historian H.P. Bremmer.
The Eichhorn collection which is offered for sale includes the continental white ceramics which will be auctioned on the 3rd and the furniture on the 19th of December 1996. The collection was started by his step-father Jean de Gondrexon who was a publisher and chairman of the Delft museum committee. Mr. H. Eichhorn continued to develop this collection until it became the major Dutch collection in this field. He acquired some of the best pieces from the collections of Elias Canneman, Gerrit Braat, H.P. Bremmer and Sidney van den Bergh when these appeared on the market.
EXHIBITED
- Variaties in Wit, Willet Holthuyzen Museum, Amsterdam
9 April - 31 May 1971
- Variaties in Wit, Boymans van Beuninghen Museum, Rotterdam, 12 June - 21 July 1971
- Variaties in Wit, Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem
30 July - 12 September 1971
- Delfts Wit, Kasteel Amerongen
1 August - 3 September 1989
- Delfts wit, Lambert van Meenten Museum, Delft
29 June - 29 September 1991
- Delfts wit, on loan to the Stedelijk Museum het Prinsenhof, Delft 30 August 1994 - January 1996
LITERATURE
- F.E. Vlielander Hein, Over oud wit Delftsch aardewerk in Het huis oud & nieuw, 1913, pp. 323-336, 397-420
- E. Neurdenburg, Delftsch Aardewerk, 1943
- C.H. de Jonge, Delftsch Aardewerk, 1947
- C.H. de Jonge, Delfts aardewerk, 1965, pp. 341 etc.
- D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Wit Delfts, 1970
- D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Een tentoonstelling, in Mededelingenblad Vrienden van de Nederlandse ceramiek, no. 66-67, 1971
- F. Scholten, Hoogtepunten van de Nederlandse faience, 1986
- S. Hartog, Delfts wit in tableau, August 1989
- J.M. Baart, W. Krook, and A.C. Lagerweg, Italiaanse en Nederlandse witte faience (1600-1700) in Mededelingenblad Vrienden van de Nederlandse ceramiek, nr. 138, 1990
- J. Hilkhuijsen, brochure white Delft exhibition in the museum Lambert van Meenten, Delft, 1991
- J. Hilkhuijsen, article white Delft, Gelders dagblad 21 September 1994
- K. Couprie, tweehonderd kannen etc., in Origine, March-April 1996
a white delft tripod melon-shaped cake mould
SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY
Details
a white delft tripod melon-shaped cake mould
Second half 18th Century
(puddingvorm) The oval ribbed body with two spouts
26cm. wide
Second half 18th Century
(puddingvorm) The oval ribbed body with two spouts
26cm. wide
Provenance
Collection Gondrexon, Rhenen
Literature
D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Wit Delfts, 1970
Exhibited
1971, nr. 95