Chinoiserie Delft Table Lamp by Royal Tichelaar Makkum, 1940s

Hand-painted polychrome Chinoiserie table lamp by Royal Tichelaar Makkum, Makkum, Friesland, Netherlands, circa mid-twentieth century. The ceramic base is decorated in the Dutch Delft tradition — a white tin-glazed ground painted with bird-and-flower garden scenes in cobalt blue, iron-red, yellow, and green. Birds perch in flowering branches across the front and side panels; blue scrollwork frames each panel, an arched border circles the neck, and a wave-and-scroll register runs around the foot. The decoration descends from the Chinese export porcelain that Dutch potters in Delft and Makkum reinterpreted from the seventeenth century onward.

Tichelaar uses the older majolica method — painting over the unfired tin glaze rather than under it — so colors flow slightly into the surface during firing, giving the decoration a characteristically soft edge. The underside bears the documented authentic Tichelaar mark: "Makkum" in a shield-shaped cartouche above pattern number 1109, with painter's initial "k."

Paired with a new bespoke loose-pleat burnt orange silk shade with an irregular hem; a twisted navy cord echoes the cobalt blue of the painted decoration. Condition excellent throughout. Newly rewired for US use.