Delft Jewellery

Delft Jewellery - or Delft Jewelry, if you prefer the AE spelling - is the common name for jewellery featuring miniature ceramic medallions, made from Delft faience - originally tin-glazed earthenware with mostly blue and white decorations - usually in a silver filigree setting. Delft jewellery includes necklaces, pendants, earrings, brooches, bracelets, rings, and cufflinks.

Delft is not a Factory. Delft is a style. In the 16th century, potters from Faenza in Italy spread tin-glazed earthenware (majolica) skills to France, Spain, and the Netherlands, where it became known as faience.  From Antwerp the technique spread to England, and the English in the 17th century named Dutch faience Delftware, after its main centre of production. Although the city of Delft gave its name to “blue Delft”, and one of the few surviving Delft factories, the “Porceleyne Fles” is based in Delft, several other Dutch cities had similar potteries as well. Throughout this site we use the word “Delft” in combinations like blue Delft, and Delft jewellery for Delft style earthenware made in the Netherlands. We reserve “Delftware” for refering to Delft style pottery produced elsewhere, or for a collection of unknown or mixed origin.

Gouda, a major centre of Delft pottery
In the first half of the 20th century, by far the largest concentration of pottery or “plateel” factories (plateel = “dinner plate-ware”) could be found in the city of Gouda, due to the existence of a solid basis of clay pipe making since the 1600’s. At some time the Gouda area had over a hundred Delft factories. The best known factories are “Plateelbakkerij Zuid Holland” (PZH), “Plateelbakkerij en Pijpenfabriek Zenith” (ZG), “Goedewaagen’s Pijpen- en Aardewerkfabrieken”, and “Plateelbakkerij Schoonhoven” (PS) in Schoonhoven, 15 km south of Gouda. The Verwoerd Workshop started in Gouda in 1949, and in spite of a brief economic recession in 1958, remained in business for more than 25 years. They all feature in our section on Gouda region potteries after the second world war: The Gouda Pottery List.

Schoonhoven, silver city
As it happens the nearby town of Schoonhoven was also the venue of a thriving silver industry, and Delft silver filigree jewellery can be seen as a marriage of both filigree and Delft. Traditional openwork filigree is made of silver or gold wire that has been twisted into patterns and soldered into place. Imitation filigree can be made of die-cut metal, or can be casted using the lost wax method. For a comprehensive overview of Schoonhoven silversmiths active after 1945 see our section on Schoonhoven Silver Marks. The Delft insert used in filigree jewellery typically has a cabochon shape, i.e. a small medallion with a domed surface, and is usually showing a miniature windmill landscape. See our Windmill Series for a full display of all models from the Verwoerd Workshop. Other designs are known - such as sailing ships, flowers, and palm tree sceneries - but these are less common. See Rare Delft Designs for further details. There is more information on the production process under Delft Medallions, and for a crash course in recognizing a Verwoerd piece, click How to recognize.