Amsterdam
Flacke-feld, near the Gate of Weesp, Amsterdam, Holland · Fayence · also recorded as Hartog Van Laun & Brandeis, Flacke-feld
Transcribed by Igor Kukolj from Chaffers, William. Marks and Monograms on European and Oriental Pottery and Porcelain, 1891, Reeves & Turner, London, p.258. Scan: archive.org/details/marksmonogramson00chaf (leaf n277). Checked 21 August 2026.
Marks
Plate I
c.1780–1785
A chanticleer proclaiming the dawn · painted · engraved in the sourceRecorded on a piece given by a son of Brandeis to M. Demmin, and a fruit-dish painted in lilac camaïeu with peasants dancing.Chaffers 1891, p.258
A pictorial mark rather than initials or a monogram, which makes it unusually easy to recognise and unusually easy to confuse with the many other cockerel devices used across European pottery.
What the source records
- A manufactory of fayence was established about 1780 at Flacke-feld, near the Gate of Weesp, at Amsterdam.Chaffers 1891 · p.258
- It was founded by Hartog, a German Jew of Breslau known by the adopted name Hartog Van Laun, in conjunction with another named Brandeis.Chaffers 1891 · p.258
- Hartog Van Laun also made the planetarium described by Professor Van Swinden and purchased by the Society Felix Meritis in Amsterdam.Chaffers 1891 · p.258
- The manufactory ceased about 1785 — an operating life of roughly five years.Chaffers 1891 · p.258
- The ware is heavy, not very artistic, and usually decorated in blue camaïeu.Chaffers 1891 · p.258
- Chaffers records that M. Brandeis still held several pieces of the ware at his residence, 419 Rapenburger Straat, at the time of writing.Chaffers 1891 · p.258
Why this differs from other listings
This factory ran for about five years and closed in 1785, so the window in which the chanticleer mark could have been applied is narrow and precisely stated. That is more useful for dating a piece than most attributions, and it comes with the maker's address — Chaffers names the house where surviving pieces were still held.
The source page
What this entry does not establish
- Chaffers does not say the chanticleer was the only mark used, and a five-year operation may have used none on much of its output.
- A cockerel device is not diagnostic on its own. Other European potteries used one, and this entry is evidence about this factory's mark, not a rule for reading every rooster.