Dutch Delftware diaper basket

A diaper basket was usually made of woven willow branches, wicker, or wood, and the shape is almost the same as that of the mangle tray. In very wealthy families, one could find a silver diaper basket, also known as a clothes bin, which was displayed as a status symbol in the delivery room. Herein lay the most precious items of clothing worn during the christening, such as the red velvet and lace-covered upper and lower linen diaper (luur = diaper), the gloves and the lace cap, etc. The depiction on this diaper basket leaves nothing to the imagination. We see an Old Dutch interior with a woven wicker cradle in the middle. The mother has just changed the child, while the father is lighting a pipe. A similar scene is depicted on a smaller-sized basket attributed to the “Moriaenshooft” pottery by the Hoppesteijn family.

The shape of the diaper basket has many similarities to a wooden mangle tray from the same period, while the half-round twisted ornaments on the edge are directly derived from the woven wicker diaper baskets from Halle in Brabant. We find this in a small format in the inventory of the doll houses. The grotesques portrayed on the vertical side of the basket might have derived from wooden carvings or from silverware produced in the second half of the 17th century.

Diaper baskets went out of fashion a long time ago. Only the most valuable examples have survived. This Delft diaper basket once belonged to the famous collection formerly owned by the Six van Vromade family, and it has been given on long-term loan to the Museum Arnhem, and subsequently to the Museum in Delft. Furthermore, this showpiece from the Golden Age was cherished for many decades by Aäron Vecht (1886–1965), one of the greatest experts in the field of Dutch Delftware.

Provenance: ex. Collectie Jhr. Six van Vromade, Fl. 310,-, M. Keerzer;

Veiling Jack Niekerk, Amsterdam, 18 oktober 1932 lot 235.

A.. Vecht, Amsterdam

Literature:

Cat. Kent en versint, Eer datje mint. Vrijen en trouwen 1500-1800 (Zwolle 1989) Red. Pretra van Bohemen e.a. pag. 211.

Prof. Th. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer. Enkele oude Nederlandse kraamgebruiken. Antiek, VI, 1971- “72. Pag. 297-332.

Dr. Jan Daniël van Dam. “Vijf mandjes en een kannetje uit een fabriek; het belang van merken op Delftse Faïence. Vormen uit Vuur-1998-1 pag. 16-25. In het bijzonder afb. 5.

Dr. Jet Pijzel-Dommisse. Het Hollandse Pronkpoppenhuis. (Amsterdam-Zwolle 2000) pag. 32, no: 26.

David Mulder “Museum Six” een negentiende eeuwse kunstverzamelaar. In: De Gouden Bocht van Amsterdam. Pag. 246-255.