Dated Dutch faience is rare, and initials on Delft objects are ever rarer. Cartouches with dates and initials like the one adorning this bowl are more common on English delftware than on Dutch faience, although a few similar bowls with initials and dates in cartouches were made by other potteries in Delft.¹ The event commemorated by the date and initials here is unknown. The outside of this large, beautifully proportioned bowl is decorated with Renaissance-style motifs of flower baskets encircled by laurel wreaths. The date 1727 in script and the initials M.R are centered in a crowned cartouche flanked by griffins embellished with tassels. The deep, narrow foot ring is painted in shades of dark cobalt blue. The bottom of the bowl is decorated with four arabesques sprouting curlicues that scroll to the rim. The deep blue decoration on the inside of the bowl includes Chinese good luck symbols. Ella B. Schaap, from Delft Ceramics at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2003), p. 80.

1. A similar bowl, dated 1718 and marked LVE, was kindly brought to our attention by Marion S. van Aken-Fehmers.