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Decor: PottersPoort Year: around 1910. High:
30cm. Wide: 20cm Painted
by: Unknown.
Painted by: the Gouda Zuid-Holland pottery (= PZH).
This high-glazed tile is historically very interesting, it shows the
“Potters-poort”-building in the town of Gouda, as it was before 1850. The
poort (Gate) together with a 1 meter thick brick town wall formed part of
Gouda’s defense system. The old city was surrounded by rivers and other
streams; the few entrances over land were guarded by “poorts”, this was
the one on the west side. In times of war or during sickness epidemics,
they closed the “poort” and kept unwanted traffic out.
The Potterspoort was a many century old building, dating back as far as
the 1300’s. It was given its name in later years because potteries were
situated just outside of this gate. They were not allowed inside of the
walls because of the fire danger they brought with them.
The Zuid-Holland Gouda Pottery (PZH) started up less than 200 hundred
meters from there in 1898. Also the Lazarus gate (The little house as part
of the mark) used to be just behind this "poort".
A sticker on the back of the tile
indicates that it was sold at one stage in The Hague in Holland by
“kunsthandel H Bos”. The shop where this was bought, already existed
in 1917, but the name Bos appeared from 1928. The tile itself
was made by the “Plateelbakkerij Zuid-Holland” (PZH) around
1910. If I read the marks on the back correctly it was sold for
12 guilders, let's say 12 dollars
