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Delftware
The Dutch were the first from 1602, with the founding of the VOC, the East India Traders, to bring Chinese porcelain to Europe in masses. This was not an easy task, because it took almost a year to sail from the Netherlands to China around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. At first porcelain was used to balance the ships carrying tea and spices, but soon after the first introduction, selling Chinese porcelain in Europe became a lucrative business for the Dutch businessmen. It was in the middle of the 17th century when turmoil in China, eventually the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing dynasty, made it impossible for the Dutch traders to purchase from the Chinese. The import of these wares was reduced to a trickle. The shrewd Dutch potters however quickly entered that niche and, although the closely guarded secret of producing porcelain had not yet made it to Europe, started to produce 'Delffse Porceleyne', or Delft porcelain. Little did they know that their thinly potted earthenware (or faïence) soon became as successful as the Chinese porcelain. Due to circumstances potteries sprouted in the Western Dutch city of Delft and the Delft potters started doing business all over Europe. The largest factories, amongst which The Greek A Factory, had people working for them in France and other places. Royalty from Great Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and many other countries, started to appreciate Dutch Delftware and entire houses were decorated with it.
Nowadays good Dutch Delftware is difficult to find. Dutch antiques dealers Aronson Antiquairs in Amsterdam, founded in 1881, however have transitioned after 1990 from a general antiques dealer to a specialist. Their speciality is not only to find and display the rarest pieces made in the 17th and 18th Delft factories, but also to publish them for future reference.
This app makes publicly available all publications in the Dutch Delftware series. By now these publications combined contain hundreds of rare objects, from early blue and white pieces to 18th century polychrome (multi-colored) animals and figures. Every object fully described, with, where possible, similar examples and notes, describing use or background of the object.
What's new
Delftware v2.2 Multi currency support
Delfware v2.1 Bug fixes
Delftware v2.0 is a complete overhaul of the old app. All Dutch Delftware publications are available in a new kiosk type surrounding and you may select which publications you would like to carry around with you. This makes the initial download much faster and it lowers the memory consumption of the app. Once a publication is downloaded it is readable without having an active internet connection, for example when you are on an airplane or abroad.
We will be able to add new publications, without you having to download an update of the entire app.
Thanks to the wonderful feedback, that we received from early adapters, we have also completely changed the way you interact with the publications. Pages can be zoomed by pinching. By rotating your iPad you go from double page spread view to single page view. And we added several ways of navigating quickly through the publication. A quick scrub bar is available at the bottom of every page, you may view multiple spreads at once, to quickly view the entire publication, there is an index button to jump to a specific entry with one tap and we have added a complete word search function.
Some publications will still be available for free and you may always download a preview of 20 pages of the paid publications, but to cover hosting fees, we are charging a small amount to purchase a publication. Once a publication is purchased you may always restore your entire app for free. Apple keeps track of your purchases and you will never be charged twice for a purchase that you have already made.
You may email Aronson Antiquairs of Amsterdam from within the app, but please feel free to contact us by email, on mail@aronson.com, should you have any questions or comments regarding this app or 17th and 18th century Dutch Delftware.
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- Last changed:
- Mar 22, 2012
- Category:
- Catalogs
- Developer:
- Media Express NV
- Version:
- 2.2
- Average Rating:
- 5.00 (4)
- Size:
- 4.7 MB
