Delft

Delft

1. a town in the SW Netherlands, in South Holland province. Pop.: 97 000 (2003 est.)

2. tin-glazed earthenware made in Delft since the 17th century, typically having blue decoration on a white ground

3. a similar earthenware made in England

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Delft

 

a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Zuid-Holland on a branch of the Lek, which is an arm of the Rhine River. Population, 84,000 (1970). Its industries include metalworking and machine-building (cables, metal structures, and equipment for the food, chemical, and transport industries) and the production of varnishes. Kaolin is obtained nearby.

From the end of the 16th century Delft has been a center for the manufacture of ceramics (delftware). Delft has retained the appearance of an old “water town,” with canals and brick houses of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Its buildings include the Gothic churches Oude Kerk (13th to 15th centuries) and Nieuwe Kerk (1384-1476) and the Town Hall, built in 1619-20 by the architect H. de Keyser. In the middle of the 20th century the Technological University was constructed, including the lecture hall, built in 1961-62 by the architects J. H. van den Broeck and J. B. Bakema. In the town museum, Prinsenhof, are paintings by artists of the Delft school of the 17th century.

REFERENCE

Eisler, H. Alt-Delft. Vienna, 1923.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.