CIRCA 1772-74, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS AND DOT MARK, INSCRIBED HOORN IN BLACK SCRIPT, IMPRESSED L

The Stadhouder or Holländische Service as it is also known, was a gift from the Dutch East India Company to Stadhouder Willem V of Holland, circa 1772-4. The service, painted with titled views of the Netherlands and Java, appears to have travelled with Willem V into exile in England in 1795. On 1st October 1823 the service, then comprising approximately 360 pieces, was sold as part of the collection of William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey. A large portion of the Stadhouder service is now displayed in the museum at the Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn. See Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II and Rainer Rückert, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, Washington, D.C., 1979, Vol. I, pp. 348-349, no. 222 for a plate with a similar maritime scene from this service.