Pelham Galleries - London Covered Vase

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Description

A Pair of Delft Blue and White Large Ovoid Vases and Covers Marked AK for Adriaen Kocks, Greek A Factory, Circa 1695-1701 Height: 26 ¾ in. (68 cm) Maximum Width: 14 ½ in. (37 cm) Diameter of Base: 8 in. (20 cm) Each painted with four pendant clusters of ribbon-tied and tasselled Chinese symbols surrounded by elaborate foliate and floral borders, the shoulders with a blue-ground border with further reserves of ribbon-tied symbols, the domed lids similarly decorated. The ?The Greek A? factory (De Grieksche A or De Griexe A in 17th-century Dutch spelling) was founded in 1658 by Wouter van Eenhoorn and given to his son Samuel as a wedding present in 1678. After the latter?s death in 1686, his widow sold the business to her brother in law Adriaen Kocks, who died in 1701. The factory then passed to Adriaen?s son Pieter Adriensz, who himself lived only until 1703, although his widow continued to use his mark PAK until 1722. From the outset the workshop attracted an illustrious clientele and was a major supplier to Queen Mary, consort of William of Orange, first for her Dutch summer palace Het Loo in Appeldorn, and later at Hampton Court in England (see A. M. L. E. Erkelens,? Delfss Porcelijn? van koningin Mary II, Paleis Het Loo, Zwolle 1996), The factory remained in production until 1818. Faience production at Delft developed in the first half of the 17th century as a means of producing ?Dutch Porcelain? to compete with imported Chinese wares that arrived in ever increasing quantities after the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in 1602. The industry was given a significant boost between 1647-52, when the civil war in China following the death of the last Ming Emperor severely disrupted Chinese porcelain production, and imports to the West effectively ground to a halt. By the early 1660s the thriving Delft faience industry boasted no fewer than 20 factories, producing high quality tin-glazed earthenware imitating Oriental porcelain, at first primarily in blue and white but moving into polychrome decoration after 1685.

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• Country : UNITED KINGDOM