Tile Holidays, Delft
(10th June 2026)
At the end of May, I had the good fortune to attend the 2AND3D Photography 2026 conference at the Rijksmuseum. It was amazing to listen to and meet so many talented, innovative professionals working in collections and archival imaging!
After the conference, I caught the train over the Nijmegen - a small city along the Waal, close to Arnhem and not too far from the Dutch/German border. My sister is on her semester abroad there, so when in the Netherlands it made sense to visit her.
On the Saturday, we decided to catch the train across the Netherlands to Delft. If you know me, or have had the chance to look at my work, you’ll realise that I am a big fan of blue and white tiles. Delft is, for me, a pilgrimage.
The town of Delft itself is incredibly beautiful. The gorgeous canals, impressive town square and dizzying spires were truly a sight to behold. But nothing could have prepared me for the Delft Potteries.
For some context, Delftware is a general term for the blue and white ceramics produced in Europe from around 1600. It was popularised in the city of Delft, which soon became the major centre of production. It’s a tin-glazed pottery type, with a plain white glaze decorated with cobalt oxide.
Stepping into the Delft Potteries at Royal Delft (Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles), we were met with a standard museum collection, housed primarily in glass cases or on the walls. It was exciting to see how the style progressed at the factory. Some highlights include the commemorative plates celebrating events such as the moon landing and the end of WWII, a to-scale reproduction of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch recreated in delft tile and Delftified Miffy.
Then there were examples of some of the architectural work produced by the factory, such as the tiles made for the Peace Palace housing the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Then came a surprise... I hadn’t looked up anything about the museum other than it’s address before visiting. I wanted to be amazed. I had not expected, however, to be able to walk through the actual working factory! Oh my.
The piles of bisque, carefully labelled.
The smell of the glazes.
The painters at work.
The giant kilns.
If you are a heavy-ceramics nerd like me, this is the closest to heaven on earth.
Royal Delft Factory floor, bisque galore (look at those piles of tiles!)