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| Delftware Tile Lead-glazed Earthenware Dutch, 1694 Made for the Water Gallery at Hampton Court Palace The Victoria & Albert Museum |
In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, tin-glazed earthenware tiles like this one were produced in large quantities in the Netherlands. This example, however, is exceptional in both its unusually large size, the quality of its decoration and its subject matter.
This tile was one of a group produced for Mary II (ruled 1688-1694) by Adrianus Kocx's prestigious “Greek A” factory in Delft. Daniel Marot (1661-1752), a Huguenot émigré, painted this as well as the others in the series of panels which were each formed from four tiles. The set was made to flank a fireplace or, possibly, a doorway at The Water Gallery--a Tudor building at Hampton Court near London that had been remodeled by Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723).
A contemporary writer Celia Fiennes (1662-1741), who visited The Water Gallery soon after the completion of the remodel in 1694, said Queen Mary II took great delight in the redesigned space. Fiennes continued that The Gallery “opened into a balcony on to the water and was decked with china and fine pictures.” At “The Gallery,” Queen Mary II is said by Fiennes to have, “indulged her passion for delftware, which was presumably in part displayed in the 'Delft-Ware Closett.’”
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