Pair of blue and white aviary water dispensers (Q34007)

Each painted around the cylindrical body with a different scene of sportsmen on the banks of a stream in a hilly landscape, one depicting a huntsman blowing a horn behind another mounted on his steed and shooting at a stag being pursued by two hounds, the reverse with ducks flying and swimming toward netted catching pipes of a duck decoy; the other with a man holding a bird near similar catching pipes before a distant horseman galloping across a bridge and being observed by a sportsman seated with his shotgun beside another standing and holding a felled duck and waiting for his retriever to deliver another; (Engels)

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each scene with its stream continuing onto the hemispherical trough at the front painted with swimming ducks beneath birds in flight on the reservoir above; the integral cylindrical covers painted with similar continuous scenes, the first with a dog bringing a bird to a man standing and holding a cage, the reverse with a lady seated and conversing with a standing man, the sides with birds flying and swimming; and the second with a seated sportsman on the front, a hound running toward a leaping stag on the reverse, a poodle running with a small creature in his mouth on one side, and a sailboat on the other; the cover vignettes interrupted by four applied blue birds below a ruyi-head border encircling the acorn- shaped knop; the lower edge of the cover with a slightly outset border of scrolls or dotted circlets, and the lightly flaring footrim with a border of petal devices. (Engels)

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These special containers are water dispensers for birds. When filled with water through the opening at the lower front and turned upright, the air pressure keeps the water leveled for a constant supply. Single bird feeders are seldom found in Dutch Delftware, but a pair such as this is possibly unique. The reservoirs are painted with continuous hunting scenes including a deer chase, duck-shooting and trapping by luring the birds into netted catching pipes (duck decoys, eendenkooi). This latter activity is rarely illustrated in the arts, and the decoration on these dispensers is currently its only known depiction on Dutch Delftware. (Engels)

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Duck decoys, generally set in wooded surroundings, consist of a quiet pond connected to ditches spanned with large hooped nets. The most common decoy pond is rectangular with curving ditches (catching pipes) at each corner, a shape referred to as ‘rogge-ei’ (‘ray-‘ or ‘skate’s egg’). Since ducks tend to take flight into the wind, the variously-aimed pipes ensure that a bird can be caught in any wind direction. The pond and pipes are enclosed by reed screens, enabling the ‘kooiker’ (‘decoyman’) to lure the ducks into a trap pipe without being noticed by the birds. Wild ducks are attracted to the decoy pond by the so-called ‘vliegstal’ (‘flying stable’ or ‘flock’) of a hundred to a thousand ducks that have flown into the trap pipes earlier, but have escaped, and therefore, will not swim into the ditches again.1 (Engels)

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Pair of blue and white aviary water dispensers (Q34007)

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