WLANL - MicheleLovesArt - Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen - Tulpenvaas

A tulipiere or tulip-holder is an ornate vessel in which to grow

tulip Tulips are spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes in the ''Tulipa'' genus. Their flowers are usually large, showy, and brightly coloured, generally red, orange, pink, yellow, or white. They often have a different colour ...

s and is usually made of hand-crafted

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

, classically

delftware Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue () or as delf, is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands was the major cen ...

. They are typically constructed to accommodate one bulb per spout with a larger common water reservoir base. They were not designed as vases for a cut bloom, as is sometimes supposed, though they could also be used for this. The boughpot and flower brick were types of vase for this.

History

While fairly uncommon in modernity, during the 17th century tulipieres were used to grow tulip bulbs indoors and were common pieces of decorative art that could often be found in the houses of European

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

s. After the advent of large-scale global trade in the 17th century, numerous flower bulbs from Asia such as the tulip,

crocus ''Crocus'' (; plural: crocuses or croci) is a genus of seasonal flowering plants in the family Iridaceae (iris family) comprising about 100 species of perennial plant, perennials growing from corms. They are low growing plants, whose flower stem ...

, and hyacinth became luxury items in Europe and these bulbs remained an exotic novelty until the end of the 17th century. Large floor-standing pyramid-shaped tulipieres were particularly ornate and were used as a

status symbol A status symbol is a visible, external symbol of one's social position, an indicator of Wealth, economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols. ''Status symbol'' is also a Sociology, sociological term – as part ...

to indicate the owner's wealth.

References

* http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/tentoonstellingen/ex_191/flowers?lang=en * http://www.humanflowerproject.com/index.php/weblog/tulips_in_harness/ {{ref end Types of pottery decoration Ceramic art Tulipa