A very rare 18th century Blue and White Delft Commemorative ...

Estimate

£2,000 - £3,000

A very rare 18th century Blue and White Delft Commemorative Plate, Delft, circa 1780-90, Marked */ DB / 7 in blue for Dirck van den Berg, the owner of De Witte Ster (The White Star) Factory (1776-1793), the interior decorated with a large windmill, its blades bisecting the date 1747 and inscribed at the bottom of the rim with the name, MATS MAN, Diameter: 25.6 cm. (10 1/8 in.). Note: This very rare and unusual plate was made to commemorate the opening of the Matsman Mill in 1747. The impressive Matsman Windmill was built in 1746 in Koog aan de Zaan by Claas Mats, who in 1747 received permission to operate it as a gerstpelmolen (gristmill) for barley. At the time, the mill was covered with a fire insurance policy for 3000 florins. From the end of the eighteenth century, the Matsman Mill was owned by the merchant Claas Honig, who also owned seed oil mills and was active in that business, but bought the Matsman as a hedge against a possible downturn in the seed oil market. In 1810, the ailing Honig rented the mill to his son-in-law Evert Smit, who was already active in the seed oil business, and upon Honig's death, the Matsman mill was inherited by his daughter, Evert Smit's wife, Trijntje Honig Smit. Her husband continued to work at the Matsman, but later in 1810, he sold the mill for 10,000 florins to Jan Heynis. Around 1870, the mill is recorded to have been owned by Pieter Dekker, who operated it for the business of the Groot Brothers. On September 11, 1903, the Matsman mill was struck by lightning and was destroyed completely by the resulting fire. - With acknowledgement and thanks to Robert D. Aronson, Director Aronson Antiquairs of Amsterdam for his expertise in cataloguing this very rare 18th century Delft plate.