The earliest
tin-glazed pottery in the
Netherlands was made in
Antwerp where the Italian potter Guido da Savino settled in 1500, and in the 16th century Italian
maiolica was the main influence on decorative styles. The manufacture of painted pottery spread from Antwerp to the northern Netherlands, in particular after the
Fall of Antwerp in 1585 when a large part of the protestant population fled to the north. Production developed in
Middelburg and
Haarlem in the 1570s, and in
Amsterdam in the 1580s. Much of the finer work was produced in Delft, but simple everyday tin-glazed pottery was made in places such as
Gouda,
Rotterdam, Haarlem, Amsterdam and
Dordrecht. , c. 1645–1655, Haarlem The main period of tin-glaze pottery in the Netherlands was 1640–1740. From about 1640 Delft potters began using personal monograms and distinctive factory marks. The
Guild of St Luke, to which painters in all media had to belong, admitted ten master potters in the thirty years between 1610 and 1640, and twenty in the nine years 1651 to 1660. In 1654
a gunpowder explosion in Delft destroyed many breweries and as the brewing industry was in decline, they became available to
pottery makers looking for larger premises; some retained the old brewery names, e.g.
The Double Tankard, ''The Young Moors' Head
, and The Three Bells''. From about 1615, the potters began to coat their pots completely in white tin glaze instead of covering only the painting surface and coating the rest with clear
ceramic glaze. They then began to cover the tin-glaze with clear glaze, which gave depth to the fired surface and smoothness to cobalt blues, ultimately creating a good resemblance to porcelain. During the
Dutch Golden Age, the
Dutch East India Company had a lively trade with the East and imported millions of pieces of
Chinese porcelain in the early 17th century. The Chinese workmanship and attention to detail impressed many. Only the richest could afford the early imports. Dutch potters did not immediately imitate Chinese porcelain; they began to do so after the death of the
Wanli Emperor in 1620, when the supply to Europe was interrupted. Delftware inspired by Chinese originals persisted from about 1630 to the mid-18th century alongside European patterns. Later, after Japanese
Imari ware had become popular in the late 1600s and early 1700s (when it too tried to fill the gap of the Chinese shortage), Delft began making their own 'Imari ware' copying the classic 'flower vase on a terrace surrounded by three panels with cranes and pine design'. Oriental styles in Delftware remained popular into the early 1700s but then declined when Chinese porcelain became available again. Some regard Delftware from about 1750 onwards as artistically inferior.
Caiger-Smith says that most of the later wares "were painted with clever, ephemeral decoration. Little trace of feeling or originality remained to be lamented when, at the end of the eighteenth century, the Delftware potteries began to go out of business." By this time Delftware potters had lost their market to British porcelain and the new white earthenware. Delft Blue pottery formed the basis of one of
British Airways'
ethnic tailfins. The design, Delftblue Daybreak, was applied to 17 aircraft. == Guilds and factories ==