Gracht A gracht is a narrow canal found in many old Dutch cities and will be familiar to those who have visited or seen pictures of Amsterdam. Used as alternatives to streets, grachts (grachten) were vital arteries for transporting produce and people in the past. Many warehouses and grand buildings in Dutch cities had doors leading directly onto them.
Weighing-house The weighing-house was an important public building in pre-modern Holland and Germany. Situated on or close to the market square, the weighing-house was where city officials would weigh produce sold at market on giant scales to establish how much tax was to be paid on it.
AFTERWORD
Halfway through the seventeenth century, known to the Dutch as the Golden Age, Delft Blue stormed onto the market and became enormously popular within a very short time. Anyone who wanted to show he had both money and good taste bought some. The supply of original Chinese porcelain had been well-established in the period of 1620–47, thanks to the voyages of discovery and the VOC expeditions that followed, until a civil war in China put an end to it. From then on, a number of Dutch cities, including Delft, Haarlem and Amsterdam, tried making the beloved pottery themselves. They called it Dutch Porcelain; the name Delft Blue didn’t come until much later.
Between 1654 and 1690, the number of potteries in Delft exploded; by around 1700 there were almost forty. The craze for decorative ceramics reached its peak between 1680 and 1730. Delft Blue found an important ambassador in Princess Mary II, the English wife of the Dutch Stadtholder Prince Willem II (William III of England). Her fascination with Delftware and enthusiasm for collecting it led to more orders from the nobility and royalty.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the earthenware industry collapsed due to competition from English porcelain. There was a revival in the mid-nineteenth century, but after the Second World War much of the once so beloved tableware was put away in the attic for good. Delft Blue was deemed fussy, old-fashioned tat. The only place its popularity remained undiminished was abroad, primarily in Japan and America.
The last few years have seen the white-and-blue pottery gradually being rediscovered in the Netherlands. KLM flies in Delft Blue aircraft and the loyalty scheme where you could collect little Delft Blue houses if you flew business class sparked a craze. Today there’s no getting away from this centuries-old export. Everywhere, from the lifestyle section of the exclusive department store Bijenkorf to the shelves of bargain homeware chain Xenos, there is Delft Blue in the form of knick-knacks, oven gloves, duvet cushions, bike panniers and anything else you’d care to name.
The real Delft Blue is still an expensive porcelain that is much loved abroad. At The Porcelain Flask (De Porceleyne Fles) in Delft, the ceramics are still fired and painted by hand. It’s worth the trip to take a look around the factory, along with the many foreign tourists, and see the painters at work.
The Porcelain Flask began on the Oosteinde (East End) but is now located on Rotterdamseweg, a little outside the old town in Delft. During the last century, another three companies were set up: The Delft Peacock (De Delftse Pauw), The Blue Tulip (De Blauwe Tulp) and The Chandelier (De Candelaer). The four of them brought the name of Delft Blue to the attention of tourists and other enthusiasts.
The characters of Quentin (Quentin) and Angelika (Engeltje) van Cleynhoven are historical figures. In 1655, Quentin and Wouter van Eenhoorn took over a pottery they named The Porcelain Flask. In a trench on the grounds of number 171 Oosteinde, where the business began, a hundred and twenty objects from the early period of the ceramics factory were recently found, including a platter with the inscription ‘Engeltie Kleijnoven, 1673’. This is probably a commemorative plate on the occasion of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. In the archive records, the name Cleynhoven is spelt with both a C and a K.
The Lotus Flower pottery never really existed. Nor did Catrin or Evert; they are figments of my imagination.
It goes without saying that Rembrandt, Nicolaes (Nicholas) Maes, Johannes Vermeer, his wife Catharina and his mother Digna are historical figures. Johannes’ father, Reynier, was the owner of the Mechelen Inn on the market square. Following his death in 1652, Digna carried on with the business. Johannes and Catharina lived with her for a long time. Sadly, the inn is no longer standing; it was demolished in 1885 to widen Oude Manhuissteeg.
It isn’t clear who Johannes’ teacher was, but the name Carel Fabritius is often mentioned. He died at the age of thirty-two, during the explosion of the artillery depot.
Suggested Further Reading
Russell Shorto, Amsterdam (London: Abacus, 2014)
Sources
Jos W.L. Hilkhuijsen (ed.), Ach, lieve tijd. 740 jaar Delft en de Delftenaren (Zwolle: Waanders, 1995-1997)
Wik Hoekstra-Klein, ‘De Porceleynne Fles: periode 1653-1850’, in Geschiedenis van de Delftse plateelbakkerijen, deel 6. (Delft: Deltech, 2001)
Jonkvrouwe dr. C.H. de Jonge, Delfts aardewerk (Rotterdam: Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 1965)
J. Matusz, Delfts aardewerk (Amerongen: Gaade, 1977)
Annet Mooji, De polsslag van de stad. 350 jaar academische geneeskunde in Amsterdam (Amsterdam: De Arbeiderspers, 1999)
Leo Noordegraaf & Gerrit Valk, De Gave Gods. De pest in Holland vanaf de late middeleeuwen (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1996)
Trudy van der Wees, Door Delfts blauwe ogen (Soest: Uitgeverij Boekscout.nl, 2012)
Reading Group Questions:
The book opens with Catrin having buried her husband and planning to leave her village. What do you think her main motivation was for leaving?
Catrin moves further away than she had planned, travelling to Amsterdam after her job opportunity falls through in De Rijp. Do you think Catrin was brave to take a chance in Amsterdam or should she have returned to her family? Would you have done the same?
Briggita and Catrin share a bond through their love of painting and both use it as a reprieve from life. How are their situations similar and different?
We later find out from Catrin’s former farmhand, Jacob, the truth about Govert’s death. Do you think it was justified?
Marriage for a woman in the seventeenth century was often an arrangement, rather than based on romance. Catrin falls for Matthias and is happy to revel in his affections without a promise of marriage. Do you think her reasoning is driven by a modern sense of independence or because she wanted to keep him in her life at any cost?
There are many rumours in the book and Catrin often fears people will talk about her past. Do you think our society is still similar in this way today? In what ways is it different?
Do you think it was wrong of Catrin to marry Matthias’s brother in his absence?
Catrin returns to Delft, after Evert has sent her away to avoid the plague, to find her husband has died. Widowed and pregnant, Catrin still finds the strength to confront Jacob. Do you think you would have had the strength to do this or would you have run again?
Do you think Catrin could be described as a woman ahead of her time?
Catrin had to overcome many obstacles; what do you believe to be her biggest?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Jessica van Erkel, product manager at The Porcelain Flask in Delft, for reading the manuscript of Midnight Blue and for her help with the research. Without her warm reception and the books she lent me, I would never have got hold of some important information. It was also truly wonderful of her to arrange a painting lesson for me with one of the painters at The Porcelain Flask, which means I now have a piece of Delft Blue at home made by yours truly.
I also want to thank my publisher, Wanda Gloude, for the idea of writing a novel about Delft Blue. Good ideas are always very welcome!
About the Author
Simone van der Vlugt is an acclaimed Dutch writer who made her name with a series of young adult novels and award-winning adult crime novels. She has written three previous historical novels set in the Netherlands. Midnight Blue is the first of her historical novels to be translated into English.
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Her books have sold in their millions in the Netherlands and throughout the world. She lives with her husband and two children in Alkmaar, North Holland.
You can discover more at www.simonevandervlugt.nl
About the Publisher
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HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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