Dutch and English Delftware
The seventeenth century has been described as the great age of maritme trade with faraway places. During the first quarter of the century - labeled the Golden Age in Holland - the Dutch began trading with the Chinese in the highly prized exotic imports of porcelains. This new mania drove the potters in the Netherlands to make tin-glazed earthenwares that borrowed heavily from Chinese forms and decorative motifs. Later in the century England, sharing similar passion for porcelain, also enjoyed a robust trade with China and produced a local industry to imitate it. In Holland, Delft was the center of porcelain production for these wares which were subsequentley were named for the city. In Britian, potteries in and around London and Liverpool and as far away as Ireland supplied the growing demand and turned out numerous forms ranging from plates to posset pots, salt cellars, and vases.The English and Dutch, political rivals, were at war three times in the seventeenth century. The final Anglo-Dutch conflict ended in 1674, ushering in a peaceful period that was reinforced when Mary, the English Catholic daughter of James II, married her Protestant cousin William III of Orange, stadtholder of the Netherlands. The royal couple left the Netherlands to ascend the British throne in 1689. Both English and Dutch examples depict the monarchs William and Mary.