(lively piano music)
- [Steven] We're in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
looking at three Delft objects
that are completely different from each other
and help to give us a sense of why Delft ceramics
were so important.
- [Courtney] In the City of Delft,
starting from about 1620 onwards,
we see this explosion of factories
that are all making tin-glazed earthenware,
a type of ceramic.
At the height in the 1660s and 1670s,
there were over 30 factories
that were constantly innovating to outdo each other
and to outdo the Chinese porcelain
that they were trying to imitate.
- [Steven] When Chinese porcelain was first introduced
to Europe by the Portuguese,
it was seen as a kind of miracle.
The walls could be extremely thin.
It was hard.
And it had a translucency that was unlike anything
that had been seen in Europe.
- [Courtney] Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries,
you see many factories trying to compete
with imported Chinese,
and to a lesser extent, Japanese porcelain.
You see de'Medici in Florence try and fail.
And it's not until the early 18th century,
when a German factory, Meissen,
manages to crack the code of porcelain.
Delft embraces the fact they couldn't make porcelain
and specializes in earthenware,
which becomes this domestic product that they excel at.
And this constant competition between different factories,
they're always one-upping each other,
and trying to find a new way to innovate
new glazes, new techniques and new forms.
- [Steven] Let's look, first, at this multi-unit vase,
and this is blue and white.
So it traces its origins to China
as a visual type,
but this is a purely European design.
- [Courtney] The Delft potters were so good
at taking inspiration from the Chinese porcelain,
particularly in terms of blue and white,
and then finding unique and innovative ways
to make new forms, to work with their domestic market.
This is one of a pair of two vases
in the form of a Triumphal Arch.
And you can see that it has seven individual holes
that would have held single tulip flowers.
And on one side,
you can see that all of the stonework is intact.
And then on the other side,
it's in disrepair,
the masonry is broken.
It's tumbling down.
- [Steven] Well, this was a moment
where there was an interest in the ruin
and to see it here replicated for a tabletop is spectacular.
The next object on this table is a little tea caddy,
that is a vessel that's meant to keep your tea fresh.
- [Courtney] This is a really rare surviving example
of something called black Delft.
It's a type of ceramic, that's made in Delft,
but the entire body has been painted
with a black enameled glaze.
It's fired and then it's painted again
with the colors of the yellow and the green
and fired again.
And this was so technically difficult
that only two of the factories in Delft
even attempted to make this.
And what makes it really special
is that it's trying to imitate another luxury good,
Japanese lacquer.
The Dutch East India Company
had thought that Japanese lacquer
would be just as popular as Chinese ceramics,
but it actually was too expensive.
The cost was prohibitive.
But a piece like this is trying
to imitate that Japanese lacquer
with less expensive materials.
- [Steven] And we see the influence of the East,
not only in that imitation lacquer,
but also in its shape and in its purpose.
- [Courtney] This is a tea caddy or canister.
It's a vessel that's made to hold the loose leaf tea
that would have been used to make cups
and pots of tea in wealthy households.
- [Steven] It's so interesting to see
one type of material mimic another,
but this is especially successful
because the smooth surface of the black lacquer-like glaze
is so akin to what lacquer actually looks like
when it is finished.
It's hard, it's smooth and it's shiny.
- [Steven] The period of time
when the Delft ceramicists were making this material
coincided with an interest in trompe l'oeil
or this idea of different materials,
pretending to be other materials.
- [Steven] So, the first object was blue and white.
The tea caddy is this luscious black and yellow and green.
And then we have this little shoe,
which is multicolored.
- [Courtney] This is another great example
of how the Delft potters had to innovate.
Blue and white was very popular,
but there were also porcelain pieces coming from Japan,
which were made in Imari,
and they had lots of different colors.
And so they had to find a way
to create multiple colors
on their own earthenware ceramics at home.
And it involved a lot of technical experimentation
with different glazes.
The different metallic oxides need to be identified
to create the different colors.
And after a number of years of experimentation,
a few factories determined that
what they actually had to do was fire it
at a lower temperature.
And we have a term for that,
that comes from the French,
petit feu, little fire.
So after all of this experimentation
and finding the different oxides,
they were able to produce pieces
that combined both the white background,
the blue that we've come to know,
and then you can also see yellow and green and red.
And even in a few instances, there's some gold,
but really a technical feat.
- [Steven] What's so interesting to me
is that you have this beautiful European style shoe,
but at the same time,
you have imagery that's clearly coming from China.
- [Courtney] I think you can see so many influences
in an object like this.
The form is European.
The decoration is, to some extent, Chinese.
And you can see that they're trying to create something new
from many different influences.
And porcelain is an object
that moves easily around the world.
Ceramics are durable.
They're easy to put on a ship
and take with you somewhere else.
So you see this exchange of ideas
within the ceramic making world.
And I think that's part of why they are always competing.
There's always new things coming from abroad,
something that you have to respond to, react to.
It's a really fascinating market
that begets competition and innovation.
- [Steven] Now, the first two objects that we looked at
have a clear purpose.
One is to hold tulips.
Another is to hold tea.
The shoe a little bit different.
It could have held something,
but it seems as if it is just an object
that is meant to be admired.
- [Courtney] Decorative art objects
sometimes don't tell us everything
and we yearn to know more.
We're not actually sure if it had a purpose.
There are some ideas that it might have related
to betrothal gifts for women.
Then other theory suggests that
it may just have been for decoration on the table
or on a sideboard.
All we can know when we look at it
is that it's beautiful
and that anyone who had it in their home
would likely have admired it and prized it.
(lively piano music)