From folk custom to art, the patacon

Unlike the duivekater, the vollaard is decorated with shields and swaddled babies made out of fine white pipeclay. The shields are called ‘patacons’ after the Spanish–Dutch coin, the patagon. They are a form of folk art that is very rare today. I have met one of the only two people still known to create this form of art, and she is the only one who still makes them to be baked into vollaards for a Christmas craft market in Bruges, once a year. She has taught me the process, and my husband and I have started making our own patacons, as this custom and form of folk art is too precious to lose.