For as little as $18 a piece, you can immortalize pets, children and precious possessions in Delft tiles made using the same painstaking techniques as the Dutch antiques.

'Originally found in grand 18th and 19th-century houses, the resurgence of Delft tiles is yet another example of the country ...

“Delft tiles can add pattern, color, and a sense of history to a room. There is a European sensibility to them that feels very French or English,” says interior designer Mark D. Sikes (who has clients ...

Located in Delft, a historic and canal-ringed city in the Netherlands that’s best known for its blue-and-white, hand-painted ceramics.

The dome of the sky is a wonderful blue, the sun has a pale sulphur radiance, and it’s soft and charming, like the combination of celestial blues and yellows in paintings by Vermeer of Delft.

The sun arcs beautifully through muslin half-curtains on brass rails. There’s pristine dark wood everywhere and whitewash walls picked out in delicate little hand-painted swashes of Delft blue.

The finest ceramics produced today are still painted by hand, which is a highly skilled job that takes around a decade or so to master. Each piece of Royal Delft porcelain is unique.

But Delft tiles were also meant to be fanciful, and the cartoonish, sometimes irreverent painted embellishments on even the earliest ones — featuring milkmaids, windmills and begging dogs ...

The kicker? Hand-painted blue-and-white scenes of flora and fauna appeared in realistic yet somewhat abstract vignettes.

One of Holland’s most prestigious pottery makers, the Royal Delft Group, is promoting its heritage to combat the rise of copycat producers selling cheaper versions of traditional blue and white ...