The Herring industry formed the most important fishing activity in the Netherlands, with the herring fleet in the first decade of the 17th century calculated to be around 770 ships, outweighing whale fishery in volume and also in turnover. Such was its economic importance to the Republic that it was referred to as 'Groote Visscherije' or 'large fishery' in contrast with whale fishery which was categorized as the 'Kleine 'Groote Visscherije' or 'small fishery.' The present lot of four plates come from a larger series of twelve depicting the 'Herring Fishery' and twelve depicting the 'Whale Fishery,' all decorated after the engravings by Adriaan van der Laan (circa 1690-1742), from drawings by Siewert van der Meulen (before 1683-1730), published by Petrus Schenk around 1720. The Delft series were produced by both De Porceleyne Bijl and 't Fortuyn factories beginning in the second half of the 18th century. Both series proved popular and were reproduced in various languages up to the 19th century.
A full set of twelve plates by De Porceleyne Bijl depicting the 'Herring Fishery' are in the collection of the Kunstmuseum, formerly the Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, and are illustrated in L. A. Schledorn, Delfts Aardewerk, Geschiedenis van een Nationaal Product, Deel II, Den Haag, 2001, pp. 239-241, no. 65. A further set of twelve plates by De Porceleyne Bijl from the 'Whale Fishery' series are in The Van der Vorm Collection, illustrated in B. Abraham and R.D. Aronson, Dutch Delftware, The Van der Vorm Collection, Amsterdam, 2010, pp. 158-161.