Delft tiles: their history and how to decorate with them

The pictorial representations on Delft tiles imitated the patterns and images on Chinese porcelain, which had been imported in great quantities via the activities of the Dutch East India Company. However they soon started to incorporate scenes from Dutch life - farm workers, windmills, tulips and sailing ships taken from the local landscape – alongside images of everything from biblical stories to mythological creatures. One antique tile dealer recently sold a tile from 1650 that featured a merman wearing a top hat.

As wealth spread among the merchants of the Netherlands, the glazed Delft tiles were increasingly popular for fireplaces and damp, smoky rooms like kitchens, where they could be easily cleaned. Their appeal was widespread, from moderately wealthy middle-class houses who might have bought very simply decorated tiles or even factory seconds, to aristocratic families commissioning vast tiled rooms.

Some of the great houses of Europe from the eighteenth century have bathrooms, swimming pools and kitchens covered in Delft tiles, sometimes in spectacular decorative panels, like the Chateau de Rambouillet in Île-de-France, once owned by Louis XVI, or the Schloss Nymphenburg in Munich, where you might have caught the extravagantly bewigged Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, frolicking in his newly built, entirely Delft-lined swimming pool after being defeated at the Battle of Blenheim.

You don't need vast expanses of Delft tiles to make an impact. In the kitchen of Jeremy Langmead's house in Cumbria, a 4x4 grid of Delft is set within a surround of simple white tiles.

Martin Morrell

At the end of the eighteenth century, the production of ‘Delft Blauw’ in Delft itself almost ground to a halt, as similar tiles could be manufactured more cheaply in Britain. Only a few factories in the town have continuously produced in the tradition since the sixteenth century. In Britain, Delftware went out of style over the course of the nineteenth century as the industrial potteries in Staffordshire developed new techniques for making blue and white ceramics that were lighter and more durable than tin glazing.

Now a new generation of craftsmen are producing hand-painted Delft-style tiles, often with irreverent and witty depictions of contemporary life. Paul Bommer, a Norfolk-based artist, experimented with various methods of glazing, before concluding that the original Dutch way really is the best. ‘I’m drawn to the flaws and the individuality, the crackle of the glaze that adds a kind of instant age. It’s a traditional medium, but you can put anything you like onto them, and it will still make sense.’

Where to buy Delft tiles:

• Regts Antique Tiles: A huge selection of antique tiles, including many collectibles.
• Norton Tiles: bespoke modern Delft-style tiles made in Sussex
• Douglas Watson Studio: collections of customisable tiles made in Oxfordshire, including landscapes and figurative images.
• Petra Palumbo: modern twists on Delft designs, including bespoke commissions
• Paul Bommer: rude and subversive one-off designs made in Norfolk