Introduction

This website started as an online catalogue for a collection of Porcelain Decor or simply ‘P Decor’ ceramics. These were produced by the Plateelbakkerij “Zuid-Holland” (or PZH for short) started at the end of 1897 in Gouda, the Netherlands, by Egbert Estié. Over the years the emphasis of the collection changed to all products of the PZH from the period of 1897 to 1908. The website is in the process to be re-structured to present the development of the PZH in a more chronological way, based on the latest insights. This research is presented in the exhibition De Plateelbakkerij ‘Zuid-Holland’ 1897-1908, Another look, in Keramisch Museum Goedewaagen. For a virtual visit click here. It is also covered in the book that accompanies the exhibition, for more information click here.

Collection

 The collection section is broken up into four areas. The first section shows the products from the first two years of production, from 1897 to 1899. The next two sections showcase the major decor families from the first decade: the Gouda decor and the Porcelain decor. The last section shows examples of the other decors that were in production before 1908. Enter the section via a click on this text or via the menu.

Databases

With the collection’s growth grew the curiosity to know more about the artists and the development of models and decors. Literature and archive searches provided only part of the story, so the challenge was to see how much the objects themselves could tell us. A photo archive and database of over three thousand objects now enables classification and presentation by artist, decor, model number, and further analysis. 

Research

Once the website was able to present the images of the objects sorted and ranked according to the classification in the databases stories started to emerge. The resulting notes are an attempt to present the findings, and as such, they reflect entirely the ideas of the writer!

Literature

A list of the available literature and archives that were used to research the early PZH story. Throughout the site the sources are referred to as (see x, page y) where “x” is the publication number in the literature list.
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