Forever Shaking, c. 18th Century Delftware Tile with Perfectly Smeared Hand-painted Dancing Couple

A happy accident this one, with what I believe was a smear to the rendering of the two figures literally baked into the tile several centuries ago! The effect, to my eye, is to add even more vigor to their dancing, as if they're forever shaking their whole bodies with a sort of maniacal exhuberance! Which somehow feels especially right for a Delft tile--immediately recognizable things, iconic really, and made to laid in larger groups, such that their imagery almost falls away; the specific occurrence of these little shaking dancers, so intimate in scale, like a little painting, thus feels all the more like a secret surprise delight!  

Delft pottery, which is tin glazed to minic the glossy white surface of porcelain, was invented  the mid-1600s in Holland in response to the popularity of Chinese blue and white. 

5 1/16" x 5. A few surface chips as evident and a small loss to the lower left corner, which just feel all of a piece with it.