The pictorial representations on Delft tiles imitated the patterns and images on Chinese porcelain, which had been imported in great quantities via the activities of the Dutch East India Company. The trend for Delftware had already spread to Britain, where the new technique of transfer printing allowed for Delft-style tiles to be mass produced, some with uniform designs. Potters around the Netherlands had already begun developing the art of tin-glazed earthenware to mimic the glossy white surface of porcelain, but in the 1640s and 50s it was Delft potters who started to use personal monograms and factory marks, and the tiles became works of art in their own right. The invention of Delft pottery in the mid-1600s was a response to the popularity of Chinese blue and white porcelain, the technique for which would not be mastered in Europe until the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Johannes Vermeer was also born in the city in 1632, spending his life painting its residents and their house Delft had been the base for William of Orange, the hero of Dutch resistance to Spain. Around the city the Netherlands at large was reaching the height of its powers, dominating European trade, setting up an outpost in Japan, founding universities, and fighting to become a Protestant state against the forces of Catholic Spain. Sandwiched between the port of Rotterdam and the coastal city of The Hague, Delft is a relatively small town now, but in the seventeenth century, at the height of the Dutch Golden Age, it was brimming with importance.
Unlike many other tile traditions, the appeal lies in their individuality: almost anything can be represented on a Delft tile, from mythological depictions of gods to bawdy scenes of drunkenness. In their characteristic blue and white, with elaborately painted portraits and pictures of everyday life, the tiles, whether antique or modern, are instantly recognisable. Few tiles are as distinctive, or loaded with as much history, as Delft.
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