Delft Blue and White Charger in the Kraak Style

This finely painted Delft charger exemplifies the Dutch ceramic industry’s response to the great vogue for Chinese blue and white porcelain in late seventeenth-century Europe. Executed in tin-glazed earthenware, the dish is decorated in a lively Kraak style, derived from the Chinese export wares produced at Jingdezhen during the late Ming dynasty (c. 1570–1640).
The composition is arranged with a central roundel of flowering branches surrounded by radiating panels filled with floral sprays, a design directly imitating the compartmentalised schemes of Chinese Kraak porcelain dishes imported by the Dutch East India Company. While Delft potters could not reproduce the translucency of porcelain, their use of an opaque white tin glaze provided an effective ground for rich cobalt decoration, creating a distinctive European interpretation of the Chinese model.