Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
Lot 12*
A Dutch maiolica crespina, attributed to the workshop of Willem Jansz. Verstraeten, Haarlem, circa 1640-1650
3 July 2025, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £3,840 inc. premium
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Raphael Machiels
Associate Specialist
Ghislaine Howard
Sale Coordinator
A Dutch maiolica crespina, attributed to the workshop of Willem Jansz. Verstraeten, Haarlem, circa 1640-1650
Decorated in the style of the Patanazzi workshop, Urbino, with a central medallion with St John the Baptist holding a cross in a landscape surrounded by grotteschi, the fluted rim with an ochre dash border, 26.8cm diam. (haircrack to rim)
Footnotes
This type of decoration originated from the maiolica pottery of the Patanazzi family in Urbino around 1515. As potters migrated from Southern Europe to the Low Countries, Haarlem became a major centre for maiolica production by 1600 (Frits Scholten, Dutch Majolica & Delftware (1550-1700) from the Edwin van Drecht Collection, 1993, p.15). While most of their works remain unattributed, Willem Jansz. Verstraeten stands out as a key figure.
Verstraeten, the son of Antwerp merchant Jan Verstraeten (formerly Jean de la Rue), moved to Haarlem in 1590. After training in Delft and managing the De Porceleyne Schotel factory, he established his own large pottery workshop in Haarlem in 1625. His workshop produced high-quality pottery, especially pieces with biblical and historical themes until around 1640, when they moved away from their previous maiolica production. With new technical innovations the factory started producing blue and white wares to compete with the demand for Chinese porcelain.
A circular dish with the same figure of St John is in the Fitzwilliam Museum of Art, Cambridge (EC.2-1945). Other similar examples are in the Edwin van Drecht Collection, illustrated in Frits Scholten, op cit., 1993, pp. 98-102, nos. 87-92.
