The last weeks in the supermarket Albert Heijn I have noted these mini tulip vases above, porcelaine made, very cute. They were firstly being sold at 7,95 euros, then 5,95 euros... and the price is still going down. Interesting how such a symbol of wealth has been transformed into a democratic object.
Tulip vases started to be designed on the XVII century. Tulips were very expensive flowers and deserved a very special vase to be the centerpiece of ostentation in a home. Even without flowers, such vase worked as a symbol of high status and pride for the owners.
The vase had a heart shape and generally 5 to 8 holes for the tulips - and very important: was hand painted in "Delft blue" colour. Another traditional shape was like a pyramid of several layers. Below, some other examples of tradional and contemporary work.
Above: tulip vase Stedelijk Museum in Zwolle, XVIII century.
Above: tulip vase at the Gemeente Museum in The Hague, Delft pattern.
Photo above: contemporary work in clay from artist Fransje van Keulen. To me, it looks like Cretean vases from thousands of years ago ! (But then that's my interpretation, not the author's...)
Above: contemporary interpretation of a tulip vase. Available at several home interior decoration shops in the NL. I have seen it a years ago at Pol's Potten, in Amsterdam and Het Arsenaal in Naarden.
Below: photo taken from a shop in the Prinsengracht right opposite Anne Frank's house museum.
Below: a tulip vase I spotted in a house in Amsterdam South.
Above, a modern variation of a tulip vase according to artists Job Smeets and Nynke Tynangel from Studio Job. It can be admired at the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen.
The vase had a heart shape and generally 5 to 8 holes for the tulips - and very important: was hand painted in "Delft blue" colour. Another traditional shape was like a pyramid of several layers. Below, some other examples of tradional and contemporary work. 
Above: tulip vase Stedelijk Museum in Zwolle, XVIII century.
Above: tulip vase at the Gemeente Museum in The Hague, Delft pattern.
Photo above: contemporary work in clay from artist Fransje van Keulen. To me, it looks like Cretean vases from thousands of years ago ! (But then that's my interpretation, not the author's...)Above: contemporary interpretation of a tulip vase. Available at several home interior decoration shops in the NL. I have seen it a years ago at Pol's Potten, in Amsterdam and Het Arsenaal in Naarden.Below: photo taken from a shop in the Prinsengracht right opposite Anne Frank's house museum.
Above, a modern variation of a tulip vase according to artists Job Smeets and Nynke Tynangel from Studio Job. It can be admired at the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen. Vase... or surrealistic sculpture ?
According to Smeets and Tynangel, their work is inpired in the XVII century tulip vases but there are no holes for inserting flowers. Instead of flowers painted in the traditional Delft blue style you can see cockroaches - as symbol for the decline of opulence. After all, everyone nowadays can buy tulips for just some euros. Even in the Dutch supermakets you can find them available. Design for the masses... that's something so Dutch.
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