Another week, another antique Delft tile, actually two, because I've really fallen for them as a thing (though am very particular about the ones I like--this and the other  plucked from a nice collection of several dozen being offered by a dealer in southern Maine with many wonderful things). I splurged a bit on this and the sea dragon also listed (perfect companions), but not often one comes across a mermaid! I really love the wavering line of the blue glaze, too, lending a sense of life and motion to the ripples of the sea around her, evincing a sense that she has just emerged from below the surface to blow her horn--or is it a scope she is raising, to peer out at the vast sea, perhaps to spy her sea dragon companion???  One of the first Delft tiles I bought and sold was an early one of a small dancing couple, rendered in a similarly wavery line making them seem as if forever jiggling (mostly product of the impossibility of achieving a crisp line I believe); a month or two later a follower sent me a photo of the image tattoo-ed on his arm--and this one too I think would make a very excellent tattoo! 

5 1/8" x 5 1/8" and in good, very antique condition--c. 1650--early 1700s. Small loss to bottom right corner and general edge wear, as there should be.