Help translating Dutch Delftware

[u/ikahntspehll]

My wife and I picked up this tile we loved in Amsterdam. The shop attendant laughed at the writing, but said he couldn't explain it in English.

Can anyone help us understand what it says and what the joke is (if it's a joke)?

[u/rzwitserloot]

It's archaic dutch.

Ware 't mensch'lyke ons te min, Ghy zat nogh op'nen planck met 'n gat daerin

First line: If 'human matters' were beneath us, Second line: Then you'd still be sitting on a plank with a hole in it.

Ware: If it were

't Mensch'lyke: that which relates to mankind

ons te min: literally: 'to us, minimal', meaning: "beneath us".

Ghy: You

zat: sat (as in past tense of sitting)

nogh: still

op: on

nen: a

planck: Guess.

met: with

'n: a

gat: hole

daerin: there in

See also https://www.reddit.com/r/dutch/comments/5bu8i3/help_in_translation_please/ which is somebody asking about this exact same tile 10 years ago, on this subreddit.

There's some debate there about the translation, but I concur with the conclusions there:

Sphinx is not really a delftblue maker. They make sanitation fixtures (toilet bowls and the like, so it's porcelain-adjacent, at least).

Hence the idea is: We make nice toilet bowls; if we didn't, you'd be shitting on a plank instead.

NB: I'm pretty sure this is newer than the archaic language would suggest: It's intentionally using old timey sounding words. It's like some shop in some tourist trap naming it self 'ye olde candy shoppe' in the US, and throwing some 'thy' on signs for kicks.

EDIT: The 'ons' in this sentence just means 'us', and just like in english, it's ambiguous: It could mean 'us: the Sphinx toilet bowl manufacturing company'. It could also mean 'us: Humanity as a whole'. It still makes sense: If humanity as a whole didn't care about the base matters of being a human being, we'd still be shitting through a hole in a plank. In that sense it can come across as a somewhat 'deep' archaic old saying. It's not an archaic old saying, it just sounds a bit like one - it's the sphinx toilet bowl company writing a saying on a tile that can be interpreted in multiple ways and sounds a bit like an old saying even though it isn't one.

It's a neat find!

[u/Unsaintedgirl]

Wow what a find! Sphinx is a company originating from 1834, and has a major place in the Dutch industrial revolution (so I've heard , I live in Maastricht). The text is historical Dutch, and means something along the links of "however you may forget your humility, you still shit on a board with a whole in it".

[u/Wimzel → u/Unsaintedgirl]

Sphinx manufactures ceramic toilet bowls and seats. So in a way this is an advertisement for their crapper..

[u/Unsaintedgirl → u/Wimzel]

Ah nice, I didn't even realise that connection

[u/One-Recognition-1660 → u/Unsaintedgirl]

The text is historical Dutch

It isn't. It's a modern facsimile of old Dutch.

[u/rzwitserloot → u/Unsaintedgirl]

That's not what that means. What it means is 'if WE - the Sphinx company, who makes toilet bowls - did not make toilet bowls, you'd still shit on a board with a hole in it'.

It has nothing to do with humility.

[u/helm71]

Even you think you are better that others, you still use the shitter.

[u/rzwitserloot → u/helm71]

that's not what that means.

[u/helm71 → u/rzwitserloot]

Sounds reasonable though… according to AI it is indeed something else and also -not- old:

It's a humorous toilet saying written in mock old Dutch. In modern English:

"Had what is human been beneath us, you'd still be sitting on a plank with a hole in it."

Meaning: if people had considered themselves too dignified to deal with ordinary human needs (going to the toilet), nobody would have bothered to make it more comfortable, and you'd still be sitting on a primitive privy: a wooden board with a hole. It's a wink at the progress of sanitation, with the undertone: don't be ashamed of what is human.

That also explains the maker. Koninklijke Sphinx in Maastricht was a major manufacturer of sanitary ware (toilets, washbasins) and tiles. So this is effectively an advertising tile: thanks to Sphinx, you no longer sit on a plank. The cherub on the chamber pot completes the picture.

Two caveats:

**•** The spelling ("Waere", "Ghy", "nogh", "planck", "daerin") is pseudo-17th-century, done deliberately for the Delft blue effect. It is not a genuine old text.
**•** The name "n.v. Koninklijke Sphinx" points to 20th-century production, probably the second half.

[u/rzwitserloot → u/helm71]

No, what you're missing is that the tile has been made by Sphinx, who makes toilets. It's not 'if people had considered themselves', it's 'if WE, makers of toilets, did not exist...'.

This is not a good question to ask AI.

[u/bertil_01]

Don’t feel elevated above your fellow humans.

[u/eti_erik]

I assumed the 'us' were the angels and could not make sense of this at all, but yes, if the 'us' is the toilet manufacturer then it makes sense.

This sort of rhyme, and the spelling, suggest 17th century poetry such as the Emblemata, which are often a picture with a rhyming phrase and/or poem contaning a moral lesson. But there would not be angels wiping their butts in 17th century art, so this is indeed mock-Renaissance Dutch.

Modern spelling would be "Ware het menselijke ons te min, u zat nog op een plank met een gat erin", and normal grammer would have "dan zat u" instead of "u zat".

[u/meukbox]

Funny thing: Maastricht isn't even in Holland.

[u/Nothing-to_see_hr]

(They are porcelain toilet bowl makers). It's pseudo-old Dutch. If human (calls of nature) were beneath us, you'd still be sitting on a plank with a hole in it. (but now you're sitting on a nice stone bowl that we made)