royal delft factory tour

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Royal Delft Museum

Open today from 10:00 until 17:00

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015 - 76 00 800

Royal Delft has been crafting Delftware by hand since 1653. This knowledge is passed from generation to generation. Meet the master painter and discover the collection of Delft Blue pottery. The collection consists of both classic pieces and contemporary decorations.

Meet the makers of Delft Blue

Visit Royal Delft Museum and meet the makers of Delft Blue porcelain also known as Delftware. Royal Delft’s painters, moldmakers and potters have been creating the iconic Delft Blue pottery for many years. Discover the unique production process, and marvel at the collection of historic Delft Blue pottery produced by the 32 factories in Delft in the 17th and 18th centuries. The museum also displays items owned by King William III of the Netherlands, as well as pieces produced by De Porceleyne Fles from 1653 until now. More than just Delft Blue is on display. The collection includes many intricate designs in various colors, such as Delft Black, Red Crackle and New Delft with its luster glaze. Inside the building and the courtyard, you can also see structural ceramics and walls covered by cloisonné tiles.

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See and Do in Royal Delft Museum

Delft Earthenware: an ode to craftsmanship

Until 4 January 2025 from 10:00 to 17:00

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Is The Royal Delft Factory Museum Worth Visiting?

The Royal Delft factory is the only remaining Delft Blue factory in Delft where Delft Blue pottery is still produced by hand. The Royal Delft Factory Museum reopened in 2022 after an extensive renovation, and I took the opportunity to check if it was worth a visit.

The Royal Delft Factory museum is worth a visit because it is a unique combination of a Delft Blue Pottery museum and the only remaining Delft Blue factory in Delft where the Delft Blue pottery is still produced by hand.

You can see how Delft Blue pottery is produced in the Royal Delft Blue factory, making the Royal Delft Blue Factory museum a unique Delft Blue museum.

Read on to find out how to get to this museum and what it has to offer to its visitors.

How To Get To The Royal Delft Blue Factory Museum?

The Royal Delft Blue Factory Museum is located slightly below the historic center of Delft. It is about a 20-minute walk from the center of Delft (Markt), partly through the beautiful historic center of Delft, to get to the Royal Delft Blue Factory Museum.

The Royal Delft Blue Factory Museum is not easy to reach by public transportation. You can get close by bus line 69 from Delft Central Station, but you still have to walk 5-10 minutes to get to the museum.

Royal Delft Blue Factory Museum Parking

The Royal Delft Blue Factory Museum is easily accessible by car, though, and there is free parking next to the museum.

If that parking place is full, there is parking across the street, but that is paid parking.

What Does The Royal Delft Blue Factory Museum Offer?

Since 1916, the Royal Delft Factory Museum has been located in a beautiful historic building below the center of Delft. However, the Royal Delft pottery factory had existed since 1653 when Jan van der Pieth founded it under the name De Porceleyne Fles ( The Porcelain Bottle ).

Production has been scaled down considerably since 1916, making room for a museum that attracts tens of thousands of visitors annually. However, manual production of Delft Blue pottery still occurs in a part of this building.

This makes the Royal Delft Blue factory the only remaining Delft Blue pottery factory in Delft, where Delft Blue is still produced entirely by hand. This is unique and makes the Royal Delft Museum an extraordinary museum, half museum and half factory.

The halls in the museum are filled with exquisite Delft pottery, from small to large. However, the largest and most impressive piece is the copy of the Night Watch, painted at full size (see above).

The museum pays much attention to the history of Delft Blue pottery and its production through the ages. In addition, the museum has a pretty good free audio tour that answers many questions about the cultural-historical significance of Delftware.

I have collected much of this information in another article on this website to answer the 10 most common questions about Delft Blue Pottery .

The factory part of the museum is fantastic to see. At each part of the production process, monitors explain briefly what happens there and why that is important in the production of Delft Blue pottery.

The highlight of the factory part is that you can look over the shoulder of one or more painters who manually paint the pottery products. I met an incredibly friendly painter who clearly enjoyed his job and was willing to explain his work.

It is a monk-like job, though, because painting a vase like the one below takes him about four hours of precise painting. When you realize that, you understand why hand-produced Delft Blue is more expensive than mass-produced white and blue pottery from China.

Of course, the tour through the museum and factory ends in a store where you can buy lovely Delft Blue pottery. There is also an intimate brasserie next to the museum shop, aptly named 1653, where you can have a drink and chat about your visit to this intriguing museum.

The Royal Delft Blue Factory museum is not large; you have seen everything worthwhile in a few hours. I advise walking back to the historic center of Delft if the weather is somewhat reasonable.

That is a lovely walk where you can still see what makes Delft such a charming city and also visit other attractions in the historic center of Delft.

What Is The Mark Of The Royal Delft Factory?

Delft potters painted marks on the back or bottom of their products to distinguish “ true Delft Blue ” from white and blue pottery produced elsewhere.

The Royal Delft factory’s current mark is below.

The bottle at the top refers to Royal Delft’s original name, The Porceleyne Fles.

The mark in the middle combines the initials J.T . of Joost Thooft; owner of the Delft Blue factory in the 19th century.

Below that is the word Delft.

Often, to the left and right of this mark are the initials of the potter and the year the pottery was produced.

Other Tourist Attractions in Delft

Delft is where one of Holland’s most famous painters, Johannes Vermeer, lived and worked his entire life. They are pretty proud of that in Delft. Vermeer lived from 1632-1675 and may have used Delft Blue tableware from the Porceleyne Fles.

If you would like to know more about Vermeer, you might also be interested in another article on this website in which I described why Johannes Vermeer became so famous .

I can recommend visiting the Vermeer Center in the center of Delft. Together with the Prinsenhof Museum (300 meters away), these are the most beautiful museums in Delft, and I highly recommend them.

I have described these museums in more detail in another article about the 30 most beautiful museums in the Netherlands.

Frequently Asked Questions

Opening hours of royal delft blue factory museum.

The Royal Delft Blue Factory Museum’s opening hours are in the table below.

Be sure to check the Royal Delft Blue Factory website to see if there isn’t a special occasion or reason they might be closed. It would be a

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Ideas to inspire your world: luxury, culture, food, travel, style, august 12, 2019, a private tour of the royal delft factory in holland.

Not far from Amsterdam , the picturesque canal town of Delft became a thriving center for ceramics in the 17th century, when the Dutch East India Company began importing blue-and-white porcelain from China.

Today, the Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles (Royal Delft) is the last remaining earthenware factory in the town. Established in 1653, it continues to produce famous Delfts Blauw (Delft Blue) ceramics based on historic methods.

Dutch artists often incorporated their own images and symbols into the Chinese designs, creating a unique fusion of Eastern and Western motifs. Blue-and-white Delftware ceramics became immensely fashionable in aristocratic Delft and soon spread throughout Europe, where they were displayed in stylish interiors…

…as portrayed in Dutch Golden Age paintings such as The Milkmaid (c.1657–1658) by Delft native Johannes Vermeer, in which blue-and-white Delft tiles can be seen in the background of the kitchen. Travelers can view the Vermeer masterpiece during a private, expert-led tour of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam .

Delftware became so desirable that, in an ironic turn of events, Chinese potters began imitating the Dutch ceramics to export to the European market.

Artisans of Leisure arranges private visits and exclusive pottery-painting workshops at the Royal Delft factory…

…and create their own piece of Delftware.

The factory shop is a wonderful place to browse for authentic Delft Blue ceramics.

Destinations:   Europe , Holland , Netherlands

Tags:   Amsterdam , Amsterdam day tours , Amsterdam tours , art tours , blue and white , ceramics , ceramics tours , decorative arts , decorative arts tours , Delft , Delft ceramics , Delft tours , exclusive travel , history tours , Holland , Holland tours , immersive travel , pottery , private Amsterdam tours , Royal Delft , The Netherlands , Vermeer

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The History of Delfts famous Blue and White

Royal delft blue tour, tour the royal delft blue factory.

Your personal Tour guide meets you and your guests at your Hotel or at the Train Station. Delft is a favourite city to Tour in South Holland when you visit The Netherlands, and a visit to the Royal Delft Blue Factory should not be missed.

“All the Stories of where Delft Blue came from, the history of the Potteries, unique insights into the Delft Blue Museum as well as todays amazing Royal Delft Factory.”

Royal delft tour, what to expect.

Royal Delft Blue Tours The Royal Dutch Delftware Factory “De Porceleyne Fles”, was established in 1653 and is the last remaining Delftware factory from the 17th century. The world famous Royal Delftware is still entirely hand painted according to centuries-old tradition. We can guide you through this amazing piece of Dutch History as we are honoured to be Official Guides and can even offer you a concession on the entrance price.

Delft Blue Production The production process of Delft earthenware starts with the composition of the clay. This consists of approximately 10 different raw materials of which the most important are: kaolin, chalk, feldspar and quartz. They are carefully mixed with water creating a liquid mass (casting slip). Most raw materials are imported from England, the Czech Republic and France. The casting slip is poured into a plaster cast. The porous plaster absorbs the water from the clay mass, leaving a layer of hard clay on the inside of the cast (clay body). When the clay body has the required thickness, the remainder of the still liquid clay is poured from the clay cast. After a while the product is strong enough to be removed from the cast without this causing any deformities. Any seams or irregularities are then meticulously removed. Some products are cast as separate pieces and assembled afterwards, ears to cups, for example and heads to cows. Large plates are produced on a mechanical potters’ wheel.

After the clay has dried sufficiently, a thin layer of engobe is applied. Engobe is a layer of liquid clay sprayed on the clay body in order to achieve the best painting results. The product is then fired for the first time at a temperature of 1160 degrees-c, after which the fired clay is referred to as “biscuit”. Delft Blue Decoration The decorating process starts with the creation of the outline after which the Delftware painters carefully fill in the details by hand using special paintbrushes made of marten and squirrel hair. The paint is water based and colour shades are created by adding more, or less, water to the paint. The Delft Blue scenery is painted with a colour mixture made to a centuries-old recipe consisting mostly of cobalt oxide. Due to a chemical reaction during the firing process, the design painted in black, hidden below the glaze, turns blue. After the biscuit has been hand painted, it is submerged in a glazing bath or sprayed with a glaze. The glaze covers the decoration with an opaque white layer. During the second firing process (“smooth firing”) the glaze melts at a temperature of 1200°C into a transparent layer of glass. The decoration resurfaces at that stage. The chemical and physical reaction between clay, engobe, paint and glaze at that temperature is what creates the typical Delft Blue colour.

tour history

Little summary.

The showroom offers a comprehensive collection of hand painted Delft Blue by Royal Delft, as well as an extensive selection of Dutch earthenware and souvenirs.

Royal Delft Products Delft earthenware is a collective term for all earthenware with decorations made by various techniques which have been in existence since the 17th century Delft Blue is by far the most famous of those. Delft Blue is the name for the earthenware with a blue decoration on a white background. The motifs have their roots in the Chinese porcelain from the Ming and Kang Hsi dynasties. Typical Dutch land and seascapes start to appear from the beginning of the 17th century.

Polychrome is a multi-coloured decoration technique. It uses the colours yellow, green, blue and russet. The knowledge on how to use these colours had at the time come over from the countries on the Mediterranean Sea. Since 1876 Royal Delft not only created an extensive assortment of Blue and Polychrome delftware, but also several new products were produced for either a shorter or longer period of time. For instance the White Delft, Red Crackle and the beautiful New Delft. In the museum you will find an overview of all these product lines.

Taylor Made Delft Blue If you looking for a high quality and enduring gift for your business relations, at home or abroad then you have the right place. You could really treat your business relations, top customers, speakers at conferences or people celebrating anniversaries by presenting them with one of their products which are imminently suitable for all kinds of gift moments. They also form beautiful mementos for contract signing ceremonies and celebrations of joint ventures.

If you would like to personalize Delft Blue with your own text or logo, that is possible too! The choice is yours and you decide the amount: ordering can be on a piecemeal basis but a series is also possible. They can even develop a totally new design for you.

Art & Design In 1988 the Porceleyne Fles started the Modern Ceramics Collection. This serves as a follow up of the relationship between potters and the ceramics factory as existed in the past (Experimental department; 1957-1977). Since then they have collaborated with both upcoming and established modern artists and designers. At the end of 2011, Royal Delft introduced its new label Blue D1653. This collection shows Royal Delft’s ability to combine the centuries-old trade of its Master Painters with the powerful design produced by contemporary Dutch designers.

Delft Blue Trademark Each product which carries the Delft Blue trademark is provided with a certificate of authenticity. With this certificate, the Porceleyne Fles and the Chamber of Commerce in Delft guarantee that the product has been completely hand-painted According to a centuries-old tradition. You will find this mark at the bottom or the back of every hand-painted product of the Porceleyne Fles.

More information about the Royal Delft Blue experience : https://www.royaldelft.com/en_gb/

still couldn’t find a perfect tour?

A private guided tour of royal delft.

• History, its development and production process
• Master painter at work
• The dining room of Vermeer
• The Dutch Royal family Chamber
• Museum with antique Delft pieces
• Ceramic rooms with building ceramics
• Historical courtyard
• Visit to the factory

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Delft Blue Line

From € 23,25 p.p. Our famous canal cruise, combined with a tour of the famous pottery factory “Royal Delft” (Anno 1653!) and a return trip to the old center.

Pricing and departure times

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Royal Delft Pottery Factory Tour

Most of our travel is kid-friendly but there are a few things to check out that just are not. With two of my girlfriends in town for the weekend, I left the kids at home and we set out to tour the Royal Delft Pottery Factory .

The factory is adjacent to the TU Delft campus and is easily reachable by car, bike or public transportation. There is a discount for Museumkaart members. Admission includes an audio tour available in many languages.

If you are interested in starting the tour with a movie, which I recommend, ask at the front desk. The movie has to be started by someone in the room, which they only seem to do on request. We went back at the end and asked about the movie.

The tour takes you through the process of painting the pottery, including seeing a master artist at work. You will also learn about the history of Royal Delft Pottery and view a huge collection.

The audio tour goes into detail about the many pieces on display. Some of the works are owned by the Royal family and are on loan to the company.

These painted “wooden” shoes were one of my favorite items.

The tour also takes you onto the factory floor. This is where it becomes particularly not child friendly. The pottery is all poured and fired on location. There are shelves upon shelves of pottery waiting to be painted, with nothing separating you and the shelves except a yellow line on the floor.

Some of the pottery is hand-painted while others use a transfer process to mass produce it. These are denoted by the markings on the bottom of the pieces.

The tour drops you off in the gift shop, which honestly was one of my favorite parts. This is a great chance to see all the different types of designs you learned about on the tour.

We ended our time at Royal Delft in their on-site cafe. The cakes and coffee were excellent. If I had thought ahead I would have made a reservation for a full tea. These reservations must be made 24-hours in advance. There were a few families enjoying the tea and it looked like a wonderful way to end a visit.

A visit to Royal Delft is a perfect afternoon adventure while kids are napping or otherwise engaged. I hope to visit Delft Blue , the other Delft potttery factory so I can tell you more about this wonderful town.

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Royal Delft Museum introduces visitors to the cultural heritage of Delft Blue. With stories, temporary exhibitions and of course the permanent collection, visitors are taken on a journey through the history of the age-old, world-famous blue-and-white pottery. But Delft pottery is more than just Delft Blue! Discover it all in Royal Delft Museum.

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