Famous brands

Collection 1 > The Netherlands

Friesland/ Fryslân

Makkum: From 1572 until september 2013 Royal Tichelaar Makkum concentrated on ornamental earthenware. Tichelaar Makkum used the age old majolica technique, in which local Frisian clay is covered with white tin glazing on which the decorations are painted, glazed again and fired on lower temperature. In my collection there are 4 Royal Tichelaar piggy banks. Nowadays only available in the webshop (see 'traditional') .
Workum had a flourishing earthenware industry for over 300 years. Only one or two potters still produce. The last existing factory of De Boer was dismantled in 2007 when Rintje de Boer died. He was the last person of the family that kept the tradition of green lead glazed piggy banks alive.
Harlingen/ Lemmer: Once an well-known places for earthenware.

Makkum

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?”

Porcelain money box in the shape of three piggy banks, design Jurgen Bey ca. 2000, made in limited edition by Royal Tichelaar / Makkum.
Stamped: Makkum brand & JR Bey. Height 16 cm, width 18.5 cm, depth 6 cm.
On the right, individual white piggy bank also by Royal Tichelaar/Makkum. Both in my collection.

WORKUM and surrounding areas

As in many places along the former Zuiderzee, characteristic utilitarian pottery can be found in Workum. The original Workumer pottery is simple brown with decorations in the ring ear technique. That is pottery decoration with white engobe or liquid clay sludge. The light-coloured clay is applied to the brown surface using a “ringeloor” (an earthenware spout or a cow horn with the tip ground away). After this, the whole is covered with a transparent lead glaze. The decoration is simple and consists mainly of lines and dots. Often multicolored. The technique of pottery painted with engobes is called “ringeloor pottery” in Frisian, “slip-decorated pottery” or “slipware pottery” in Dutch, “terre-vernisee” in French and the English name is “slipware-ceramics”. piggy banks have three legs and a typical knotted tail. There are of course (typically Dutch?) exceptions to the 'rule'.

My largest brown “Workum type" earthenware piggy bank with slip decoration, 24 cm length and a smaller one of 18.5 cm. By the way, “Workum pottery” has become a generic name and does not have to be made in Workum.

The fish shape? Originally they were folded from a round slab of clay. The diameter determined the length of the piggy bank. Fold the ends together, pinch the edge firmly (this creates the rib) and you almost have a piggy bank. Shape the head, put ears and 3 legs underneath, cut a coin slot in it. The hardest part is making the knot tail. This is possible with small quantities. In mass production, if there ever was one, a mould was used.

Frisian carving

The notched technique (carving or in Dutch "kerfsnee") is one of the oldest decoration techniques and is known in many cultures. Our distant ancestors carved not only wood, but also stone, pottery, bone and mammoth ivory. The carving of Runic signs is already described in the Icelandic EDDA. In addition to rune signs, rune stones from Northern Europe also depict rosettes that are still used today for making Frisian carvings or carvings. The notched ('kerfsnee") piggy banks have 4 legs.

ANTIQUE, 1905. Pottery factory De Boer – Workum. Carving by Jacob Meines Visser (1864-1954). Transcription translated: "De Zusjes (sisters), December 20, 1904; MaakMijVet (Make Me Fat)"

You rarely come across a Frisian carved piggy bank in these colors. I bought it from a collector with specialty “Lemmer”. He determined that this certainly did not come from Lemmer: “much too coarse”. Where from then? I have only seen this color scheme at “Velzer aardewerk” (1920-2002, last name Velzen Keramiekfabriek in Sassenheim). But does it come from there? Length 15 cm.

More Frisian pig piggy banks

Green Frisian pottery (with the poisonous - and long prohibited for 'household' - opaque lead glaze) is also known, but not typically Workum. And of course carved earthenware, which was made not only in Workum but also in Lemmer and furthermore in Sneek.

Gouda

In contrast to Delft (where pottery had its peak in the 17th century), the pottery and decorative pottery industry in Gouda flourished between 1898 and 1940. Many of these factories emerged from the centuries-old Gouda pipe factories. Well-known factories were Goedewaagen, Plateelbakkerij Zuid-Holland, Hollandia, De Star, Regina, Ivora, and Zentith, not to mention the NKI (Dutch Ceramic Industry / 1956-2000). In 2026, there are still 2 important active "Goudse" heirs:

Royal Goedewaagen (Nieuw-Buinen): Originally founded in 1779 in Gouda as a pipe factory. It grew into one of the most important producers of Gouda pottery and Delft blue. In 1984 the factory moved permanently to Drenthe. It is one of the few traditional Dutch factories that still actively produces high-quality decorative pottery.
Schoonhoven Keramiek/Dutch Ceramics (formerly Plateelbakkerij Schoonhoven): Founded in 1920 in Schoonhoven. They used to make a lot of typical Gouda pottery and now operate under the flag of Dutch ceramics. They still produce ceramics and Delft blue for the business and tourist market.
There are also small studios around Gouda.

Goedewaagen took over many Gouda factories, saving many moulds. The Gouda piggy bank is green (lead glaze, which has no longer been allowed to be used since the late 1980s), often has diagonal stripes on the flanks, a button tail and 4 legs (antique examples also have 3 legs and are often not green but yellow). The traditional Gouda pigs are often provided with numbers that indicate the size, but each potter/factory had his own measuring system. I have included an example of the pre-1940 STAR.

Antique Gouda piggy bank from ± 1850. Probably an excavation find, bought in 1989 at a boot sale in Krimpen aan de Lek. Length 13.5 cm. Contrary to the "rule", not green with 4 legs, but yellow with 3 legs. And inevitably battered. Collection number 135.

Delft

Delft blue is a type of faience (pottery) with blue decoration. It emerged at the end of the 16th century as a cheap alternative to blue-and-white Chinese porcelain and experienced a heyday in the period 1650-1750, when 32 pottery factories were active in Delft. This flourishing industry was wiped out around 1800 by cheaper pottery from England (Staffordshire). There is only one original factory from the 17th century left in the city of Delft itself, supplemented with one smaller studio and modern brands:

Royal Delft (De Porceleyne Fles): The absolute market leader and the only remaining factory from 1653 that still produces continuously. Can be visited via the Royal Delft Museum.
Craft economy De Candelaer: A small-scale active pottery factory/studio in the city center of Delft that has also been making completely hand-painted Delft blue since 1975.
Heinen Delfts Blauw: A well-known modern brand. They design both traditional handicrafts and modern collections (partly machine produced in China). They took over De Delftse Pauw in 2018, but had to close that specific location in 2020 due to bankruptcy

In addition to Delft Blue pottery, there is multi-colored Boerendelft and Delft white.

Two piggy banks from De Delftse Pauw (1954-2020). Length 11.5 cm. Period 1954-1970. Original Delft blue on the left and Delft polychrome on the right. Both mold 101 and hand-painted on the contours of the same stencil. This is a drawing with small holes along all the lines of the drawing. The perforated paper is placed tightly on the unfired, porous earthenware (the biscuit). The painter then gently hits it with a bag filled with fine charcoal powder. When the stencil is removed, a pattern of small black dots remains on the pottery. These serve as guides. The painter traces these lines by hand and fills them in with the special black cobalt paint. This is the real hand painted pottery. Nowadays, mass production "for tourists" uses screen printing (transfers), on which the decoration is printed on the earthenware in one go.