Early Polychrome Dutch Tin Glazed Tile, Man with Rifle and Rifle Stand

Regular price $75.00

I've developed quite a taste for antique Delft tiles of late--each its own small and singular painting, rendered in tin glaze and enduring across centuries on the face of a tile. This very thick one with polychrome glazing appears to be quite an old one, and based on the color and manner of the painting, I believe comes from the Friesland province, in northern Holland. I think he's terrific in his painterly blue and green and ocher, with mustache and beard and plume on his hat. Naive me, at first I thought perhaps a crutch held vertically to his side, but have since learned that it's a rifle stand--from the days when rifles were so heavy a stand was needed to help steady them when shooting. With the rifle in question carried on his back, extending over one shoulder, and a sword held from his belt extending on the opposite diagonal, making him look something of a swashbuckler.  

5 3/16" x 5 3/16" x 3/4". Good antique condition, with plenty of crazing, which I personally like, and some surface chips around the perimeter, as is typically the case with these old ones.