Suikerpot met riviergezicht 1809 - 1814

This is a porcelain sugar bowl with a lid, made by Koninklijke Porseleinfabriek Dommer & Co. The pastoral scene painted on its side gives us insight into Dutch society at the time. Consider the way that landscape is being used here. The image of the sugar bowl romanticizes rural life, with its vision of harmony, leisure and simplicity. But, the factory that produced this object was based in Loosdrecht, near Amsterdam, where wealthy merchants were eager to display such wares in their homes. Porcelain, like sugar, was an expensive commodity, so owning this object declared one's place in the social hierarchy. The image doesn't comment directly on that hierarchy but rather suggests the kind of escapist fantasy that wealthy merchants may have enjoyed, far removed from the realities of rural labour. To understand this object better we might look into company records, merchants’ inventories, and travel writing of the time. These kinds of resources help us to understand the social and institutional contexts in which the object was created.