Tile picture: C.2847-1928

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

• Tile picture

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware

Description

Tile picture composed of twenty tiles. Earthenware, tin-glazed white on the upper surface and painted in blue, yellow, yellowish-green and manganese with the interior of a buckwheat-mill. On the right, a horse turning a large mill-wheel; in the middle, a man with a pipe in his mouth, tying up sacks of flour, to the left of him a man seated on a chair beside a tub, another man with a sack on his shoulders climbing a ladder to a loft, a woman entering a door in the background. The sacks are lettered 'S.V. LEYDEN'. Below, the date 1780, with an inscription between the 7 and 8: Boekweyt draagen, droogen, breeken/al wat Agter word gedaan,/word hier duydelik vergeleeken/toond het Grutters Ambagt aan./ziften, wayen, maalen, buylen,/Zakkenbinden, weg-gehaald/om er Zilver voor te ruylen,/dus word Waar en Vlyt betaald'. ('The carrying, drying and crushing of buckwheat and all that is done afterwards is here clearly represented, the groats trade shown. Sifting, weighing, grinding, bolting, binding sacks, carried away to be bartered for silver, thus are goods and industry paid for'). Both picture and verses are signed 'G. v. L.'. In ebonized wood frame.

Notes

History note: Unknown before Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

18th Century, Late
Production date: dated AD 1780

Note

Despite its name, buckwheat, is not a grass like wheat, but is related to rhubarb and sorrel. It accounted for a fifth of all the grain consumed in Holland in the 1790s, and was less heavily taxed than other cereal crops. Flour milled from it is a pale brownish-beige colour. A buckwheat mill in Leiden is documented in the mid 18th century, and it was demolished in 1780, so this tile picture may be commemorative. The initials 'S.V. LEYDEN' may indicate that the mill owner's name was S. van Leyden or that his initials were S.V. of Leyden.

Label text from the exhibition ‘Feast and Fast: The Art of Food in Europe, 1500–1800’, on display at The Fitzwilliam Museum from 26 November 2019 until 31 August 2020:Buckwheat was the cereal of the poor, and accounted for a fifth of all grain consumed in Holland by the end of the eighteenth century. This tile picture shows the typical interior of a rosmolen (horse-powered rotary mill) and the various stages in buckwheat milling. The pride in mechanisation, efficiency, and the resulting contribution to the Dutch economy is evident in the lengthy inscription: ‘The groat trade is shown here: the buckwheat is first brought in, dried and crushed. It is then sifted, weighed, ground, and sorted in the bolter. Finally, it is packed in sacks which are taken to the market and traded for silver. This is how goods and industry are paid for’.