Vliegroute Londen - Melbourne 1983

Curator: Welcome to the Rijksmuseum. Today, we’re looking at "Vliegroute Londen - Melbourne," a charming ceramic plate dating back to 1983. It’s got that classic blue-and-white Delftware look. Editor: Ah, yes! It gives me such a tranquil feeling. The world mapped out on a humble plate—there's a poetic juxtaposition in that, don’t you think? Reminds me of old travel posters, promises of adventure writ small. Curator: Absolutely. It commemorates the flight route from London to Melbourne and seems to be made for "De Porceleijne Fles.” Notice the visual shorthand; we have Big Ben, the airplane itself slicing through the continents, and then what I believe is a building in Melbourne. It covers a journey, it covers continents! Editor: It’s amazing how powerful these simple symbols are, right? The airplane piercing a blue world represents exploration, the audacious push of boundaries—a tangible longing that whispers across generations, yet fixed onto the mundane canvas of an everyday object. A souvenir almost, encapsulating ambition, in cobalt swirls and flourishes. What story is it trying to communicate, I wonder? Curator: Well, if we consider it as a commemorative piece, perhaps for the 50th anniversary of that London-Melbourne route… The dates, 1934 to 1984, certainly imply that. There's also this sense of Dutch pride; Delftware is such a signature style and tying it to international travel… It suggests a global perspective but seen through a very Dutch lens. Editor: Precisely! It's more than just decoration; it's a container of stories and identities. This little plate becomes a microcosm of ambition, memory, and national pride, neatly packaged for our consumption, a reminder to look up. A hopeful talisman to carry back home. It’s quite ingenious, really. What's your main takeaway? Curator: Mine is probably that, despite its apparent simplicity, the plate actually operates on so many levels. It’s a decorative item, it celebrates a technological achievement, and evokes cultural pride. I'd even venture to suggest a melancholic sense of time's passage as we mark a journey’s milestone decades on. Editor: For me, the symbolism is particularly captivating. It's more than just pretty porcelain. It shows our persistent, perhaps universal, yearning to transcend our immediate reality and make a connection across a great divide. A memento of human dreams.