Visiting the Royal Deft: Delfts Blauw, De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles

If you are going to imitate something, then you better do it well. Or perhaps, better?

That’s the story in a nutshell with Royal Delft, the porcelain company (Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles) with roots going back to the second half of the 16th century.


The Royal Delft Museum and Factory.

The Dutch weren’t the inventors of blue pottery. They learned this from Italian potters and copied Chinese porcelain brought back by Dutch seamen from the Far East through the Dutch East India Company (VOC – Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie).

The Dutch were master imitators of the porcelain. Demand skyrocketed and before long enough business was doing very well that the company invested in more than 32 factories in Delft and a number in Amsterdam, Haarlem and Middelburg.

[To read the rest of the post and see more pictures, click the READ MORE link below]

Read more »

Subscribe to receive free email updates: