The Seventeenth-and-Eighteenth-Century Dutch Delftware: A Study Of Its Chinoiserie

Under the background of a Chinese vogue in Europe from the mid-17th century through the mid-18th century, the Delft-based pottery factories in the Netherlands imitated imported porcelain products from China as well as from Japan, using the local tin-glazed earthenware. The imitation was designed, in its form, to be adjusted to the customs of the daily life of Europeans while borrowing the Chinese patterns. The Delftware products characterized by the so-called Chinoiserie won a success in European market, and initiated the popularity of Chinoiserie design and its further development in other European countries.The thesis, based on a survey of the history of Dutch Delftware from its beginning to prosperity and finally to its decline, approaches to the influence of Chinese export porcelain on Dutch Delftware, in particular, to the style of Chinoiserie of Dutch Delftware.The thesis has five chapters. Chapter One is a brief survey of the style of Chinoiserie in Europe from the 17th century through the 18th century. Chapter Two presents the birth of blue Delftware under a background of mass import of Chinese export porcelain, and the prosperity of Chinoiserie Delftware under a background of the shortage of import of Chinese export porcelain. Chapter Three focuses on the development of Delftware at its heyday, in particular, the style of the polychrome Delftware, Delftware pottery statues and Delftware Imari. Chapter Four is a study of the impact of illustrations of the Chinese tourist publications on Delftware, with a particular analysis of the imagery sources of the flower pagoda, and of the Chinese genre painting in both plagues and tile paintings. Chapter Five is a brief summary of the causes of the decline of Delftware and a survey of the status quo of modern Delftware. The final part summarizes the features and impacts of Delftware's Chinoiserie.