De Grieksche A (The Greek A) Factory and Samuel van Eenhoorn In 1658 Wouter van Eenhoorn, who had co-founded the Drie Posteleyne Astonne (Three Porcelain Ash-Barrels) Factory in 1655, began pottery production next door in the former brewery known as ‘Griex A’ on the Geer near De Metaale Pot (The Metal Pot) Factory, creating what was to become a dynastic business and the most successful of all the early Delft factories. Although it is not certain whether Wouter used a mark on his products, he lost no time in establishing his factory’s reputation for superb craftsmanship, even referring to his wares as “porcelain.” It was for just such fine quality oriental imitations that De Grieksche A factory received a commission in 1667 from the city of Delft to make several “porcelain” pieces for the wife of the Swedish ambassador “extraordinaris” in Holland.
support her own striving delftware industry. Although the embargo was never lifted officially, it was ignored for the major royal and noble commissions, so was rendered largely ineffective, and the trade with England continued and prospered.
The factory’s early and continuing success was in large part the result of Wouter van Eenhoorn’s international contacts, which extended from Amsterdam to London, Hamburg and Bordeaux. By the end of the 1650s, he had already transacted business in France through the merchant brothers Claude and François Révérend, who ten years later were in arrears to De Grieksche A, causing Wouter to enlist the help of his brother-in-law Willem Cleffius of De Metaale Pot in an attempt to effect payment. In 1674 Wouter installed his son Samuel (16551685), who had just been admitted to the Guild of Saint Luke, as his shopkeeper, in charge of the foreign orders, and the records indicate that within a year De Grieksche A had established a contact in Rouen, the bustling center of France’s faience industry.
Upon the death of Samuel van Eenhoorn in 1685, his widow Cécilia Houwaert inherited the business and ran it for a year before selling the factory and its accoutrements to her brother-in-law Adrianus Kocx (who had married Samuel’s sister Judith) – a sale for which the arbiter was Lambertus Cleffius, her husband’s first cousin and the owner of De Metaale Pot. Kocx, the master potter and merchant, who was admitted to the Guild of Saint Luke as a shopkeeper in 1687, must have considered Lambertus Cleffius more of a cousin and friend than a rival, because together they negotiated to enlarge their French market by putting under contract two Parisian agents who were permitted to sell only the products of De Grieksche A and De Metaale Pot with the proviso that the Parisians had the first choice of the merchandise, and Kocx and Cleffius could not deal with any other merchants within 30 miles (48.28 km.) of Paris. By 1693 this arrangement had been dissolved, but both factories continued to thrive, De Grieksche A enjoying the patronage of the most important clientèle, including the King-Stadhouder William III of Orange and Queen Mary II, to whom vases and other ornamental wares decorated with the royal cipher were delivered, many of them intended for use at the royal residence of Hampton Court Palace in Richmond-uponThames..
Shortly before his death in 1678, Wouter gave De Grieksche A to Samuel as a wedding present. The inventory lists of Wouter’s estate made in 1679 hint at his financial success: among his 47 paintings were still lifes, seascapes and two portraits of Wouter and his wife Christina Lambrechtsdr. Cruyck (b. 1619), the older sister of the wife of Willem Cleffius of De Metaale Pot; in the dining area the chimneypiece was ornamented with seven large Delft chargers, and there were twelve walnut chairs around the long table. Wouter’s estate also included his coownership of the Drie Posteleyne Astonne Factory, but his heirs chose not take their shares of this business, deciding instead to turn it over to Wouter’s partner, Gerrit Pietersz. Kam.
In 1701, just prior to his death that year, Adrianus Kocx gave a festive dinner for the entire staff of De Grieksche A to celebrate his transfer of the factory to his son Pieter Adriaansz. Kocx. Only two years later in 1703 Pieter died and his widow Johanna van der Heul took over the business, paying homage to her husband by continuing to use his mark PAK on her highest quality products. A qualified potter and a thoroughly competent manager, who surrounded herself with talented employees, by 1713 Johanna had in her employ four “gold painters” whose contracts gave her the exclusive rights to their work as long as she owned the factory. It is with the most important, if eccentric, of these “gold painters,” Ary [or Adriaa(e)n] van Rijsselberg(h), that the mark AR is generally associated.
Samuel van Eenhoorn ran De Grieksche A Factory by himself for seven prosperous years, during which he is known to have enjoyed the patronage of the House of Orange, as evidenced by archaeological excavations at Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, which have unearthed garden ornaments and tulip vases marked SVE. Technologically, he improved and refined the wares of the factory, and to the limited palette of cobalt-blue in various shades he introduced manganese-purple, which initially was used effectively to outline and define the decoration. He also supplied an important voice for the Delft master potters and shop-owners as a member of the three-man delegation (with Lambertus Cleffius of De Metaale Pot and Quirijn Aldersz. Kleijnoven [or van Cleijnhoven] of De Porceleyne Fles [The Porcelain Bottle] Factory) dispatched to England in 1684 to protest and effect a rescission of the 1672 embargo on the importation of Dutch Delftware, which England had placed in order to
After two highly productive decades, Johanna sold the factory in 1722 to Jacob van der Kool, the grandson of Jacob van der Kool who had owned De Drie Porceleyne Flessies (The Three Porcelain Bottles) Factory, and De Grieksche A continued to prosper under Jacob’s ownership and the subsequent management of his son-inlaw Jan Teunis Dextra (1758-64), by whom it was sold to Jacobus Adriaansz. Halder (1764-68), and then to Jan van den Briel (1768-83), when the products experienced a noticeable decline. After van den Briel’s death, his widow van den Briel-van der Laan operated the factory for a decade before selling it in 1794 to Pieter Jansz. van Marksveld, who ran it for another decade until his death in 1804, when it was run for another seven years before she closed the factory in 1811. References: Van Aken-Fehmers 1999, pp. 65-69; Havard 1909, Vol. II, pp. 132 and 236; De Jonge 1947, pp. 303 and 368; and De Jonge 1960, pp. 43-49.
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