Beyond Blue and White

"Delftware" brings to mind blue-and-white earthenware inspired by Chinese porcelain, but in fact, Delftware appears in a range of colors. Artists achieved colors such as blue, yellow, brown-purple, and green by adding metallic oxides to the glaze. They also developed a technique that involved firing the ceramic at a lower temperature—known by the French term petit feu (small fire)—allowing for finer painting and more subtle color variation. Colorful ornament took inspiration from earthenware produced in parts of Asia, such as Japan (dark blue, orange, and gold) and India (dense decoration in red, blue, dark green, and yellow). Lambertus van Eenhoorn, at De Metale Pot factory, was among a number of craftsmen at the forefront of these new color developments, which could even feature gold.