Royal Goedewaagen
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Royal Goedewaagen is a Dutch ceramics manufacturer whose roots stretch back to Gouda in the early seventeenth century. It all started in 1610, in Gouda, when Jacob Pietersz started the pottery workshop 'De Star'. The Goedewaagen family, who had been pipemakers for decades, used their experience transporting goods abroad, and these developments ensured that Goedewaagen first became the largest pipe factory in the Netherlands, and later even the largest in Europe. The designation "Royal," granted in 1910 to a former legal predecessor of Goedewaagen, is part of the company's historical legacy, though it lapsed after the bankruptcy of that company in 1983 and no longer legally applies to the current company that continues to trade under the name.
Over the twentieth century the firm broadened from pipes into decorative and tableware ceramics, employing notable designer-potters along the way. In 1938–1939 the designer-ceramist Willem Stuurman began working at Goedewaagen and is also known for a number of hand-thrown designs. The potter-designer Zweitse Landsheer worked for Goedewaagen from 1952 to 1959, and with his hand-thrown pottery made an innovative contribution to Goedewaagen design, especially for consumer goods. The company eventually closed its offices in Gouda in 1974, having already moved production to Nieuw-Buinen, where it continues to operate today.
Pieces bearing the Goedewaagen or Royal Goedewaagen mark are collected as part of the broader "Gouda pottery" tradition, a term that encompasses the extraordinary variety of pottery and ceramics produced by all the Gouda factories, past and present. Gouda pottery, known in Dutch as 'Gouds plateel', is a collective name for glossy and matt glazed earthenware using a technique widely applied in Jugendstil and Art Nouveau ceramics from around 1900, a technique Royal Goedewaagen still masters and continues to employ today. Hand-painted, individually decorated wares from established Gouda houses like Goedewaagen remain sought after by collectors for their craftsmanship and their connection to a centuries-old Dutch ceramic tradition.
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