20. Blue and White Large Urn-Form Jardinière Delft, circa 1686-1701 Marked AK in blue for Adrianus Kocx, the owner of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) Factory from 1686 to 1701 the tastemakers of the time in the Netherlands, England and France, who followed Mary’s lead by placing their own orders in Delft for grandiose ceramics to enhance the many splendid houses, which, particularly in England, were being built or refurbished at the time. It is no coincidence that the English nobility used architecture and interior design and ornamentation as a means to gain social and political status, and during the reign of William and Mary, they adapted easily to the Dutch court style and the favored architects of the day, among them the court architect William Talman (1650-1719), who designed Chatsworth in Derbyshire, Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire, Drayton House in Northamptonshire, and Uppark in Sussex, all but Uppark still furnished lavishly with specially commissioned Dutch Delftware; see R. Liefkes and P.F. Ferguson, “Delfts aardewerk in Engelse verzamelingen” (“Delft ceramics in English collections”) in Lahaussois 2008, pp. 98-105.
Painted around the campaniform body with a pair of deer, peacocks, cranes and other birds amidst flowering plants and rocks between a series of floral, foliate-scroll, whorl-patterned lappet and ruyi-head borders around the rim, neck, upper and lower body, knopped ankle and domed circular foot, the sides affixed with loop handles pendent from large chrysanthemum blossoms, and the center of the interior pierced for drainage, Height: 44 cm. (17 5/16 in.) Provenance: A Continental private collection formed before World War II and rediscovered in 2000; The Dr. Günther Grethe Collection, Hamburg Exhibited: Leeuwarden, Keramiekmuseum Princessenhof, Groen Geluk, March 25 to October 28, 2012; PAN Amsterdam, KVHOK by Jan des Bouvrie, November 18 to 25, 2012
The Delftware in the collection of Queen Mary during the period from 1677 to 1689 in which she lived in Holland at Het Loo Palace, is known through excavations adjoining the garden of her ‘keukenkeldertje’ (‘little kitchen basement’), recorded in A.M.L.E. Erkelens, Queen Mary’s ‘Delft porcelain’: Ceramics at Het Loo from the time of William and Mary (Zwolle 1996), who mentions that a 1713 inventory of this apartment included five small flower pyramids (p. 69). The only marked pieces that were found from this period, however, were by Samuel van Eenhoorn, the owner of De Grieksche A from 1678 to 1686, prior to Adrianus Kocx’s slightly lengthier and more prolific ownership from 1686 to 1701.
Note: This impressive jardinière or garden pot is one of the rare survivors from an important group of large ornamental wares for the presentation of flowers and plants, which were admired and, when sufficient personal wealth permitted, commissioned by the court, the nobility and the aristocracy in Holland, England and France, primarily during the short co-regency of Holland and England (with Scotland and Ireland) from 1689 to 1694 by King William III (1650-1702) and Queen Mary II (1662-1694). After Mary’s death from smallpox in 1694, William continued his reign for eight more years until his own death from pneumonia following a riding accident in 1702. As the couple died childless, William was succeeded on the English throne by his sister-in-law, Queen Anne (1665-1714), Mary’s younger sister. However, he had no heir in Holland, and his death brought an end to the House of Orange, but not to the flourishing Delft factories, which Queen Mary’s taste and patronage had done so much to promote.
After Mary had moved back to England, her Delftware, which was installed primarily at Hampton Court, increased both in size and extravagance of shape, presumably an accommodation to the scale and grandeur of the rooms. At Hampton Court, Mary had her own pavilion, the Water Gallery, where her Delft was displayed. As discussed by W. Erkelens, “Koninklijk Delfts ‘porselein’” (“Royal Delft ‘porcelain’”) in Lahaussois 2008, pp. 92-97, ills. 5-10, the Water Gallery included a dairy with sizeable milk dishes and large ornamental tiles decorated with designs after Daniel Marot (1662-1752), the court designer (who, as a French Huguenot had brought the style of Louis XIV [1638-1715] to the Protestant court of William and Mary), as well as a gallery where large flower pyramids and vases were placed, and “into which opened a little room in each of the four corners: a mirrored room, one of marble, one for the bath, and one of Delft ‘porcelain’” (ibid., p. 92). As described by the English journalist and novelist, Daniel Defoe (c. 16601731), the Water Gallery was “the pleasantest little thing
Without surviving children, Queen Mary had occupied herself with various interests, among them gardening and a passion for blue and white Chinese porcelain and its counterparts in Dutch Delftware with which she filled her residences at Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, Kensington Palace in London and Hampton Court in Richmond-on-Thames. To effectively display her flowers and plants, but also for use as decorative ornaments, she ordered large urns, vases and flower pyramids primarily from De Grieksche A Factory during the ownership of both Samuel van Eenhoorn and Adrianus Kocx, thereby establishing a fashion for such vessels among 34