Butter dish with stand with the Steenplaats near Dordrecht c. 1778

This is a delicate butter dish with stand, decorated with a view of the Steenplaats near Dordrecht. The Steenplaats, easily reached by ferry, was a popular destination for city dwellers. The imagery on this dish gives us an interesting insight into Dutch leisure and the romanticization of country life. These sorts of domestic objects played an important role in shaping social norms around dining and hospitality. The very act of serving butter from such a dish becomes a social performance. Butter dishes such as this one can tell us a lot about the culture that produced them, and about the complex relationship between urban and rural life in the Netherlands. By researching the cultural history of Dordrecht, we might better understand the nuances of class and the institutional forces that shaped artistic production in the Dutch countryside.