EARLY NETHERLANDS MAIOLICA. By Bernard
Beckham. xiv. + 136 pp. 56 plates (12 in colour). (Geoffrey Bles. £3 3s.)—It has long been known that Italian potters were settled at Antwerp in the sixteenth century, but until recently their work has never been identified; Mr, Rackham has brought together in this scholarly book the documentary evidence bearing on the Netherlandish pottery of this period, and by its aid has identified a goodly array of wares, most of them formerly classified as Italian. The beautiful tiles at The Vyne in Hampshire, built in Henry VIII's reign, were for long a puzzle to archaeologists ; they are now identified as Netherlandish work. The word maiolica was used at first only for the Spanish lustred pottery imported into Italy by way of Majorca, and the word preserves the original spelling of the name of the island. Latterly covering all classes of Italiari tin-enamelled wares, its meaning has been conveniently extended by Mr. Rackham to include also the contemporary enamelled earthenware of the Low Countries and elsewhere. His survey closes with the end of the sixteenth century, when Spanish pe cution had aroused a Dutch national spirit and what had the Netherlands became Flanders and Holland. A in maiolica style survived for another century in Dutch tile. and Delft pottery, until unmeasured admiration for blue-and-white porcelain drove the earlier gay,
strong colon out of fashion. The absorbent surface of unfired inaio demands bold, vital brushwork, and this is well displaced the fine colour plates of this lavishly illustrated book.
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