Everlasting handpainted Delft Blue ceramic

Everlasting handpainted Delft Blue ceramic

Famed for its architecture and art, the Netherlands now adds a
variety of modern attractions to its age-old allure. KLM Royal Dutch
Airlines, which celebrated its 80th anniversary on Oct. 7, and the
Netherlands Board of Tourism invited The Jakarta Post's journalist
Stevie Emilia on a media tour from Sept. 19 to Sept. 26 to see the
country's main attractions. Below are her report and photographs.

DELFT, Netherlands (JP): Delicate blue ceramics in various
forms is a common thing here, available in places from small
street shops to elegant stores.

Ceramics can also be seen neatly arranged in glass cabinets or
displayed in living rooms, hotels, cafes, even at Amsterdam's
Schiphol airport, where it decorates walls with its painted blue
designs.

This kind of ceramic is known as Delft Blue, a general term
for earthenware decorated in blue on a white background.

According to Inge Groot Enzerink, sales and public relations
coordinator of the Royal Dutch Delftware De Porceleyne Fles --
the only remaining factory of the 32 earthenware factories that
were established in Delft in the 17th century -- not all of the
Delft Blue ceramics are original. Some are even made as far away
as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

But some people, especially tourists, do not care much about
originality.

"I bought these Delft Blue as souvenirs for my friends, not
for me," said Ursula, a German tourist.

When asked whether the products she had bought were original
Delft Blue or not, she said: "Honestly, I don't really care. My
friends wanted me to buy these blue ceramics for them, so I
bought them."

She added that she was not interested in ceramics herself. "If
I want to collect works of art, I prefer paintings. At least I
wont be afraid they will break," she said.

But others crave for the real Delft Blue and pack most stores
which claim to sell originals at high prices.

At Royal Delft, for instance, a tobacco jar is offered at 440
guilders (US$212.6), while a vase might reach 795 guilders
($384.2).

Enzerink said the factory received plenty orders for its
special editions, like pieces for Christmas and the coming
millennium when it will release three millennium plates designed
by its master painters.

"Most people who order our special edition pieces are
collectors," she said.

The factory's main line of products range from Delftware whose
patterns originate in Chinese porcelain from the Ming and Kang
Hsi dynasties, along with original Dutch land and seascapes, and
Delft Black, a technique of applying blue, red and yellow on a
black background.

Another product, Polychrome, stems from a multicolored
technique that is considered to be the successor of Italian
Majolica which was produced in the 16th and 17th centuries. It
consists of yellow, green, blue and russet decorations. Yet
another, Pijnacker, is based on a technique that owes its origin
to Japanese Imari porcelain and is mainly decorated in red, blue
and 24 carat gold.

Enzerink said the number of factories producing earthenware
rapidly increased in the 16th century, especially after Dutch
seamen caught several cargoes containing Chinese porcelain. The
Dutch East India Company also contributed to the development of
ceramics by bringing back large quantities of Chinese porcelain
from the Far East.

And soon, this type of porcelain, which was decorated in blue
on a white background, became popular among the Dutch. Local
potters started to imitate them, but since porcelain was a
material unknown in the Netherlands, they used local clay.

Enzerink said at the time, ceramics showed one's status in
society and simply served for decorative purposes.

"Then, those who had ceramic collections were usually those of
high status in society," she said, adding that the collection
would be proudly displayed to guests.

When asked whether Delft Blue is simply a copy of Chinese
porcelain, Enzerink said confidently: "It might be true of the
early period, but now, with the development of our techniques and
patterns, they might be the ones who copy us."

The production process of Delft earthenware starts with the
composition of the clay. It is made up of about 10 raw materials,
of which kaolin, chalk, feldspars and quarts are most essential.
The raw materials are carefully mixed with water and become a
liquid mass.

"But due to the limited materials found here in the
Netherlands, we still have to import some, including clay, from
England, the Czech Republic and France," Enzerink said.

The liquid clay is then poured into plaster molds, which
absorbs the water, leaving a layer of hard clay on its interior
walls. After some time, the clay, or body, is hard enough and is
taken out of the mailed.

After the body has been left to dry, a layer of liquid clay is
applied to obtain the best painting results before the product is
fired for the first time at a temperature of 1,160 degrees
Celsius. The body, which is now called a biscuit, is ready to be
decorated.

Delftware painters start to decorate by painting the outlines
of a design. After this has been done, they carefully apply the
details with special brushes made from the hairs of martens and
squirrels. The paint is waterbased, enabling the painters to
create various shades of blue by adding more water.

Delft Blue, for instance, is painted with a mixture which
mainly consists of cobalt oxide. Chemical reactions during the
second firing will turn the black paint to blue.

To create Pijnacker, the colors are painted on in different
stages. First, the blue paint is applied, then the product is
glazed and fired at 1,200 degrees Celsius. The temperature is too
high for the red and gold, so the two colors have to be painted
afterward and then fired at the lower temperature of 800 degrees
Celsius.

Rembrandt

As of June 1st, the Royal Delft factory started the full-sized
production of Dutch painter Rembrandt's masterpiece, The
Nightwatch, on Delftware tiles, inspired by the coming millennium
and the ongoing Rembrandt by Himself exhibition at the
Mauritshuis.

Two of the factory's master painters, Jos L.P.M. van de
Giessen and Nico de Graaf, are both graduates of the Academy of
Arts and have been working at the factory for more than 35 years.
They are currently working on the Delft Blue painting.

"The Delftware version of The Nightwatch is expected to be
completed in October of next year," Enzerink said.

Although it's not yet completed, Delftware's Nightwatch was
sold to an anonymous buyer who bought it in September at an
undisclosed price. The price of this unique piece of art was
earlier estimated at half a million guilders ($241,662.6).

Master painter de Graaf explained that in total, 480 tiles
measuring 18 by 18 cms were used for the painting. But during the
first stage, Delftware's Nightwatch would be larger than the
original painting.

"After the shrinking in the kiln, the painting will be the
same size as the original," de Graaf said.

Traditionally, Royal Delft is known for reproducing tile
paintings and pictures. However, in the almost 350 years of its
history, not once has such a large piece been made.