Delftware Set
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but the Hasbrouck delftware demonstrates more than that. A mimicry of Eastern porcelain creation and design, the vases speak to a revolutionary era of cultural melding and a new Dutch symbol that lasts even up to today.
Description
Three lidded balusters, or full bellied vases, sit next to each other inside the Jean Hasbrouck house on Huguenot Street. They stand around 13 inches tall, are hand painted with cobalt, and display a variety of patterns, mark-making, and storytelling. A transfer decoration adorns the main panels on all four sides of each vase. They display a scene with two joyful deer in a field, and are framed with exquisite, painterly swirls.
The lids are bell-shaped. They are classified as inset lids, with the flange built to rest perfectly inside the mouth of the vase. Decorative handles, known as finials, sit on top of the lids. Here, we see a different white “Fu Dog” (lion dog) on each of the pieces. Their mouths are painted a brilliant red.
The bottom of the jar and the lid have a distinct ring of brown raw claws where they sat on the kiln shelf. It is a stark difference from the rest of the white piece. An ornate blue signature is also seen on the bottom of the vase and the lid, accompanied by a serial number written in marker.
Provenance
This set was manufactured in the De Witte Ster factory in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. High-quality ceramics were created at this factory from 1660 to the late 1700s and branded by its signature star and the potter’s initials. The vases can be dated more accurately because of the accompanying initials “AK,” Albertus Kiell, who was the owner of De Witte Ster from November 1761 - December 1772.
These three jars were purchased and now owned by the Historic Huguenot Society. Many of the items in the home did not belong to the family, but rather they resemble the type of objects they would have owned based on estate lists, paintings, and cultural research done at that time. The delftware pieces, while authentic, do not have a clear chain of ownership established and were introduced to the home as a stand-in for what the Hasbroucks most likely would have purchased and owned.
Narrative
High up on top of a kasten in the hallway of the Jean Hasbrouck House sit three ornate vases. Other bowls and cups sit below, similarly designed, but these three stand higher than most. They were likely made as a set of five, but the house only displays three. These pieces, though they did not belong to the Hasbrouck family themselves, represent the type of decorative artwork that a family of this stature would have owned at the time, underscoring not only the centuries of history embedded in the fragile earthenware but also the development and continuation of Dutch culture that persisted in New Paltz.
Wealthy homeowners such as the Hasbrouck’s sought to imitate the fine, crystalline designs of Chinese porcelain. In the 14th century, Marco Polo brought porcelain to Europe. This type of clay was white and delicate, yet durable. China is rich with porcelain, a clay which has not been tainted by other colorful oxides the way earthenware is. Polo called this white clay porcellana, a term for the shiny and white cowry shell. Porcellino in Italian is also the name for a little pig, whose white bellies resemble soft white clay (Force).
By the 16th century, trade routes between the Netherlands and Asia brought fine china to many wealthy homes. “[Blue-and-white porcelain] went on to triumph far and wide, reshaping [and sometimes destroying] pottery traditions in virtually every society it touched, from the Philippines to Portugal” (Finlay). Despite its popularity, the recipe for Chinese porcelain was under strict protection, leaving Europeans with a thirst unsatiated. Many European nations attempted to forge their own imitations, but it was the Dutch delftware that rose to the top.
The process of creating Delftware begins with using earthenware local to the Netherlands to create a pot. Earthenware is a dark, easily manipulated clay. This was the only type of clay native to Europe and took on a generally dark red/brown color. To conceal the natural color of the clay, tin was used to create an opaque white glaze. For the Hasbrouck delftware, though the exterior remains intact, the rim of the vases inside are chipped and eroded to reveal this hardened red clay beneath, breaking the illusion of its pure white form.
Additionally, true Chinese porcelain was painted with cobalt imported from the Middle East (Pierson). This was already available to Dutch artisans, and they were familiar with the material in ceramics. The tin glaze was a beautiful base for painting over with cobalt, and though the method produces a sophisticated result, it is rather a simple concept. Potters like the De Witte Ster company were thus able to replicate the highly sought after porcelain through cheaper, more accessible methods.
It was Chinese ceramic design and painting style which really took Europe by storm, and Dutch potters used delftware to adopt Far East aesthetics. This is most notable in the detailed pastoral tiles that decorate the Hasbrouck vases, displaying sprouted branches, docile deer, and vines that fill in the white space. This imitation extends beyond the images themselves, as noted by the Historic Huguenot Street: “The finials of these vases represent a Dutch interpretation of a Chinese architectural ornamentation. Foo dogs, or fu dogs, are lions typically made of stone and thought to protect against evil…To the Dutch, these beasts resembled the dogs they kept as pets, and foo dogs were painted to appear more familiar and dog-like” (Huguenot Street). Oftentimes, the Dutch would misinterpret Chinese imagery, one example highlighted by Cath Pound’s article “Delftware Porcelain – the Global Story of a Dutch Icon,” which mentions Chinese peaches (symbolizing longevity) becoming oranges on delftware pieces.
The Hasbroucks settled in New Paltz from Europe in the 1600s, a wealthy family whose remaining possessions reveal not only the affluent lifestyle they lived but the culture they integrated into their new home. New Paltz was not a secular area but rather one that participated in the larger global market, indulging in European luxuries across the Atlantic Ocean.
Though delftware fell out of favor in the late-18th century, once the recipe for porcelain was revealed, its persistence through the centuries demonstrates the adoption of Eastern aesthetics into Western earthenware and the melding of cultural practices that the Dutch adopted into their own aesthetics (Pound). And in the new colonies, the presence of the Dutch delftware in the Jean Hasbrouck House stood as a testament to this pottery revolution, as a point of pride and now heritage for their descendants centuries later.
~Althea
Works Cited
“Baluster Vase, One of Three in a Five-Piece Garniture (F1980.190–194).” National Museum of Asian Art, asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/collections/search/edanmdm:fsg_F1980.192a-c/. Accessed 8 May 2023.
Finlay, Robert. “The Pilgrim Art: The Culture of Porcelain in World History.” Journal of World History, vol. 9, no. 2, 1998, pp. 141–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20078727. Accessed 5 May 2023.
Force, Thessaly La. “The European Obsession with Porcelain.” The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2015, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-european-obsession-with-porcelain#:~:text=Porcelain%20was%20white%20gold%2C%20valued,and%20vials%20of%20musky%20scents.
“Hasbrouck Family Association.” Historic Huguenot Street, http://www.huguenotstreet.org/hasbrouck. Accessed 8 May 2023.
Huguenotstreet. “This week’s curatorial post features a set of 18th century delftware vases.” Instagram, 15 Nov. 2022, https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck-6OWStr_o/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
PIERSON, STACEY. “The Movement of Chinese Ceramics: Appropriation in Global History.” Journal of World History, vol. 23, no. 1, 2012, pp. 9–39. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41508050. Accessed 5 May 2023.
Pound, Cath. “Delftware Porcelain – the Global Story of a Dutch Icon.” Www.bbc.com, 24 June 2020, www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200623-delftware-porcelain-the-global-story-of-a-dutch-icon. Accessed 17 Sept. 2025.
“Roman Pottery Beaker.” Museum Wales, museum.wales/collections/online/object/54638d3b-71e7-30f5-97f4-8fd4b479be6b/Roman-pottery-beaker/. Accessed 8 May 2023.