Wall plates

Over the years, Bilderdijk objects have been produced on various occasions; some of them have ended up in the collection. Extraordinary are, for example, five Delft blue wall plates, which were probably released by De Porceleyne Fles (now Royal Delft) in 1931, with religious proverbs from Bilderdijk, such as: ‘Do not desire more than God gives you / He knows what everyone needs’ and ‘Beloved has greater sweetness/ Than all the pleasures of abundance.’ There are strawberries and cheese cubes on it.

In May 1945, to celebrate the Liberation, two wall plates with lines by Bilderdijk appeared, taken from his well-known poem ‘Afscheid’ from 1811, in which he predicted that the Netherlands would rise from its ashes like a phoenix. The same lines were also woven into the National Breakfast Tablecloth in 1945:

Holland is growing again! Holland is blooming again! Holland's name has been restored! Holland, risen from its dust, Shall be our Holland again; Dying I reported it to you!

The last line was, understandably, omitted both on the plates and the tablecloth. In 1945, there was no longer any room for the Bilderdijkian longing for death.