Crocus Pot

DESCRIPTION

Made in 1740 in England, the original delftware crocus pot was conceived to cultivate bulbs indoors to brighten gloomy winter days. Although the shape of the bowl is European, the inspiration for the decoration is Chinese—a true depiction of immaculate chinoiserie. Left in the white or decorated in shades of blue or polychrome enamels, delftware was both a useful and a decorative luxury ware for wealthy households. By the middle of the eighteenth century, crocus pots were being used to cultivate flowering bulbs indoors during the winter months. Our reproduction holds bulbs or cut flowers.

Porcelain. 8'' diam.

ART HISTORY

The whiteness of Chinese porcelain, long revered in the West, was imitated first by Islamic potters, and then later in Spain, with the invention of an opaque white glaze that successfully concealed the darker color of the pottery body. From their Spanish counterparts, Italian artists learned and further developed a white-glazed pottery of their own—the justly-famed “maiolica” of the Renaissance. The secrets of making the white glaze spread gradually to the north, and by the seventeenth century it was being produced in special potteries all over Europe. In France and Germany the wares were called “faience,” and in Holland and England they were known as “delftware,” after the Dutch town of Delft.