Most of what passes for delftware in Holland today is a mere shadow of the tin-glazed earthenware created during its golden age and is not made in the original way. "So much is from China or Taiwan and is not even hand-painted," says Ella B. Schaap, curatorial associate for Dutch Ceramics at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The irony of the Asian provenance is not lost on anyone knowledgeable in ceramics history: "Delftware began as a Dutch imitation of Chinese porcelain," writes Stephen J. Van Hook in his book Discovering Dutch Delftware, and "the Chinese are now making Chinese imitations of Dutch imitations of Chinese porcelain."

Original delftware came out of potteries in Delft, Holland, in the 1600s and thrived in the world marketplace through the 1700s. Termed "antique delftware" to distinguish it from the modern delftware of the late 19th century onwards, its many utilitarian and decorative forms are escalating in value at today's ceramics auctions.

Its remarkable trajectory began with a technique for tin-glazing earthenware that arrived in Holland from Italy by 1550. The Dutch discovered that the glaze hid the red clay body of their pottery with an opaque, glossy white and provided the ideal surface for decorative painting. This "Netherlands majolica" satisfied local markets until the Dutch began regular importation of Chinese Ming Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain through the newly established Dutch East India Company, and the growing middle class couldn't get enough of it.

Dutch potters then began attempts to refine the majolica to compete with the thinner, lighter, blue-painted porcelain. When potteries around Delft improved their glazing, clay quality, and pigments to match the Chinese blue, delftware was born. After a civil war in China interrupted porcelain exports, delftware flourished as a substitute. At peak production, around 1700, Delft supported more than 30 potteries.