18th c. Delft Tile - II

In a country built on the sea, the Dutch painted their whole world onto kitchen tiles, one at a time in blue. This one dates to the 18th century, a little house and tower standing on a spit of land with a sailboat slipping past, a small flourish worked into each corner. Found in Amiens, it is a rare survivor of the Dutch potteries that turned out tiles by the thousand, each one painted freehand so no two came out quite the same. Sylvie stands it on a kitchen shelf against the backsplash, or hangs it on a wall on its own, a small blue window onto another century.