SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (DUTCH)
Famous Dutch Architects—The Royal Palace on the Dam, Het Loo, the
Mauritshuis and Huis ten Bosch—Interior Carvings—Specimens of
Rooms and Ceilings in the Rijks Museum—Love of the Dutch for their
Houses—Miniature Dutch Houses and Models of Old Amsterdam Houses
in the Rijks Museum—Architecture of the Seventeenth Century—A
Typical Dutch Home—The _Luifel_, _Voorhuis_ and _Comptoir_—
Interior Decorations and Furniture—Dutch Mania for Cleaning—
Descriptions by Travellers of Dutch Houses and Cleaning—Cleaning
Utensils—House and Furniture of Andreas Hulstman Janz, in
Dordrecht—Inventory of Gertrude van Mierevelt, wife of the
painter, in Delft—“Show-rooms” and their Furnishings—Cooking
Utensils—Bedroom in the House of Mrs. Lidia van der Dussen in
Dordrecht—The Cradle and “Fire-Basket”—The Baby’s Silver—The
“Bride’s Basket”—The “Bride’s Crown” and “Throne”—Decorations for
a Wedding—Description by Sir John Lower of the Farewell
Entertainment to Charles II at The Hague.
The most important architects of this period were Hendrik de Keyser
(1565–1621), Jacob van Kampen (1598–1657), and Philip Vinckboons
(1608–75).
The Royal Palace on the Dam, Amsterdam, was built by Jacob van Kampen
for a Town Hall; it was begun in 1648 and finished in 1655. It is
interesting to note that the structure rests on a foundation of 13,659
piles. The gables are ornamented with allegorical reliefs by Artus
Quellin the Elder (see page 137), representing the glories of Amsterdam.
Artus Quellin and his assistants also adorned the interior with carvings
and sculptures in marble. There are also in the various rooms
elaborately carved chimney-pieces, some of them with painted overmantels
by Jan Lievens, Ferd. Bol, and N. de Helt-Stocade (1656). The ceilings
were painted by J. G. Bronchorst, Cornelis Holsteyn and others. This was
not used as a palace until the time of Louis Napoleon in 1808.
Het Loo, near Apeldoorn, the favourite residence of William I, William
III and the reigning Queen Wilhelmina, received additions during this
period; and the Royal Palace at The Hague was also built in the time of
William III.
The Mauritshuis, on the Vyver (now the home of the famous Hague picture
gallery), was erected in 1633–44, for Count John Maurice of Nassau, the
Dutch West India Company’s Governor of Brazil, who died in 1679. The
architects were Jacob van Kampen and Pieter Post. This house was rebuilt
in 1704–18, after a fire.
These two architects were also responsible for the Huis ten Bosch (House
in the Wood), the royal villa near The Hague, built about 1645 for the
Princess Amalia of Solms, widow of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange
(1625–47). The wings were added by William IV in 1748, and many of the
decorations are of the eighteenth century. The famous apartments are:
the Chinese Room, the Japanese Room, and the Orange Saloon, in which the
Peace Conference met in 1899.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXIV.—_Chairs._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
The Trêves Saloon in the Binnenhof in The Hague was built by William III
in 1697 as a reception-room. It is embellished with a handsome ceiling
and portraits of seven stadtholders. The two chimney-pieces in the hall
of the first chamber represent War by Jan Lievens and Peace by Adr.
Hanneman.
An example of Philip Vinckboons’s work is the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam,
built in 1662 in the classic style. This is now occupied by the Royal
Academy of Science.
Exceptionally noteworthy specimens of interior carving of this period
are: Renaissance chimney-piece and a Gothic chimney-piece in the Louis
XIV style in the Antiquarian Museum, Utrecht; a chimney-piece dating
from the end of the seventeenth century, with a group of the
stamp-masters of the cloth-hall, by Karel de Moor, in the Municipal
Museum, Leyden; carved panelling in the council chamber, Woerden (1610);
carvings in the church at Venlo; panelling in the palace of the Princess
Marie on the Korte Voorhout, The Hague; a pulpit of 1685 in Broek in the
Waterland; and a monument in the church of St. Ursula, Delft, to William
of Orange, begun in 1616 by Hendrik de Keyser, and finished by his son
Peter.
The Rijks Museum possesses many examples of panelling, chimney-pieces,
and separate pieces of furniture; and several entire rooms have been
correctly arranged. Among these is a room with wall-panellings and
chimney-piece from Dordrecht (1626). The ceiling, supposed to be by Th.
van der Schuer (about 1678), represents Morning and Evening, and is from
the bedroom of Queen Mary of England, wife of William III, in the
Binnenhof, The Hague. The gilt leather hangings and other furniture in
this room are of the same date.
Another room contains a beautifully painted cylindrical ceiling of wood
from the apartment of Mary Stuart, wife of William II, Prince of Orange,
also in the Binnenhof. The panelling, chimney-piece, gilt leather
hangings and furniture are also of the seventeenth century.
A notable room is that taken from the house of Constantia Huygens in The
Hague, built by Jacob van Kampen. Blue silk is curiously used to
embellish the panelling. The ceiling, painted by Gérard de Lairesse
(1640–1711) represents Apollo and Aurora. This room is in the Louis XIV
style. A later fashion is, however, shown in the splendid “Chinese
Boudoir” of the latter part of the seventeenth century from the
Stadtholder’s palace at Leeuwarden.
Another room deserving attention is from a small hunting-lodge called
the Hoogerhuis, near Amersfoort, built about 1630 by Jacob van Kampen
and inhabited by him. The room is lighted by eight small windows, over
which paintings were hung. There is an interesting bedstead here,
ornamented with painted garlands, and with three compartments, beneath
the centred one of which is the Spanish motto, “_’El todo es nada_”
(Everything is nought).
The Dutch of the seventeenth century passed practically all their lives
at home. With the exception of merchants, students and men of affairs,
people rarely visited their friends and relatives in neighbouring towns.
As Pieter van Godewijck wrote:—
_Het reysen is een taeck nyet yder opgelegt,
En ’t is nyet al te veel en sonder blaêm gezegt,
Het huys is als een graf, waerin wy altyt wonen,
In ’t aerdsche tranendal._
(Travelling is a task not given to everybody,
And it’s not said so much and without blame
That the home is like a grave, wherein we always dwell,
In the earthly vale of tears.)
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXV.—_Chairs._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
The house was therefore “their world, their toy, their god”; they loved
to embellish and decorate it, they loved to take care of it and keep it
clean, they loved to see it painted on panel and canvas; and some of
them even went so far as to have their house reproduced in miniature,
with all its furniture and belongings copied in wood and metal.
It would be a mistake to suppose that the so-called dolls’ houses, which
may be studied in the museums of Amsterdam, Utrecht, and other towns,
were merely the somewhat elaborate toys with which the English-speaking
juvenile race sometimes amuse themselves. As the old inventories show,
dolls’ houses and all their appurtenances were very vivid mirrors of
contemporary life, including furniture and costume. This is particularly
true of Holland, although other countries of Western Europe preserved
evidences of the taste for similar “toys” of earlier date. Henry IV of
France, for instance, when a child, played with toys, among which are
noticeable a suit of clothes in wrought silver.
These dolls’ houses were elaborate and costly; for every detail of the
real model was represented, including the small articles of porcelain,
Delft, earthenware, pewter, brass and silver. Dolls’ _salons_, too, were
often painted by noted masters, and cost thousands of florins. For
example, a beautiful doll’s house of the date 1680, in the Antiquarian
Museum of Utrecht, has its walls covered with paintings by Moucheron.
The houses consisted of from four to eight rooms with furniture of wood,
silver, gold, or filigree silver or gold. Such rooms as the kitchen,
lying-in room and death chamber were often included. The latter was
draped in black with a canvas or silver coffin containing a tiny wax
corpse. Often, too, the house was completed with a pretty miniature
garden embellished with a quantity of coral-work, trees, hedges, seats,
paths and statuettes. We may note that Margaretha Godewijck had a doll’s
house with a garden and arbour, upon which she wrote the following
poem:—
OP MYN CORAAL WERK
_Hier siet ghy van coraal in ’t cabinet besloten,
Een baeckermat, een wiegh, een korf, een stoof, een mandt,
Een kleerben opgepronckt, een bedsté, ledikant
Gevloghten van coraal en na de kunst gegoten,
Gemaeckt van suyver glas, en van verscheyden kleuren,
Aen d’ Aemstelstroom gevormt van blaeuw, van groen en peers,
Want sulck corale werck verdient oock wel een vers,
En Pallas sou het self voor wat bysonder keuren._
(ON MY CORAL WORK.
Placed in my cabinet here, you see made of coral
A baby’s basket, a cradle, a child’s foot-warmer and a warming-basket,
An ornamental clothes cupboard, a bed and bedstead of twisted and cast
coral
And of pure glass, of different colours,
Shaped at Amstel’s stream of blue and green and purple.
For such coral-work deserves indeed a verse,
And even Pallas would judge it more than ordinary.)
OP MYNE THUYN VAN SYDE
_Hoe seer dat Crassus pronckt en stoft op al sijn fruyten,
Gewassen buyten Roôm en aen het Tybers stof,
Hoe seer Lucullus pryst sijn bloemen, planten, spruyten,
Sijn ooft, sijn boom-gewas, sijn za’en, sijn braven hof,
Dit alles kan een wint, een buy en vlaegh verdrijven,
Soodat de bloem verdort en ’t rijpe fruyt verstickt.
Maer mynen hof van syd die sal gedurigh blyven.
Mijn fruyt het greetigh oogh, maer niet de mond verquict.
Geen spin, geen worm, geen rups en kan mijn boomen deeren,
Mijn bloemtjes somers sijn en ’s winters even groen,
Mijn kerssen altyd root, mijn appelen, mijn peeren
Sijn altyt even gaef, sy konnen ’t ooghe voên._
(ON MY GARDEN OF SILK
How much Cassius may pride himself and boast of all his fruit
Grown outside Rome and on the Tiber’s border;
How much Lucullus may praise his flowers, plants and twigs,
His lawns, his tree-garden, his seeds and a fine orchard—
All these can be scattered by the wind, a shower, or a gust;
So that the flower fades and the ripe fruit perishes,
But my silken garden will remain for ever.
My fruit satisfies the greedy eye, but not the mouth;
No spider, worm, nor caterpillar can hurt my trees;
My flowers are as green in winter as in summer,
My cherries always red, my apples and my pears
Always ripe and sound; they feed the eyes for ever.)
The dolls’ houses of the rich were always made of costly woods, and were
frequently inlaid with ivory and tortoiseshell. At the exhibition of
Amsterdam in 1858, among a number of these curiosities, was a notable
one veneered with tortoiseshell and with painted glass doors—a present
from the King of Denmark to Maarten Harpertz Tromp. Another was a
typical Dutch house of walnut-root wood, furnished with silver furniture
and wax dolls; there were also two of Italian make with tortoiseshell,
ebony and brass ornaments, the doors of which were painted with Italian
sea-towns; and one of ebony, the door-panels of which were painted by
Peter Breughel.
In the Rijks Museum are several models in miniature of old Amsterdam
houses. The finest one is of tortoiseshell ornamented with white metal
inlay. According to tradition, Christoffel Brandt, Peter the Great’s
agent in Amsterdam, had this house made by order of the Czar, and it is
said to have cost 20,000 guilders (£2,500), and to have required five
years to produce. Dating from the latter part of the seventeenth or
first part of the eighteenth century, it contains all the furniture that
was to be found at that date in an aristocratic dwelling on the
_Heerengracht_ or _Keizersgracht_. Every object in it was made by the
proper artisan, so that it is correct in every detail.
Another dates from the first half of the eighteenth century.
Architecturally it is very interesting; but the interior furnishings are
much simpler than the above.
A third house, belonging to the family Ploos van Amstel, dates from the
first half of the eighteenth century, and is supposed to be inhabited by
a doctor. It is three storeys high, and has a wide door on the façade
with the initials P.V.A. (Ploos Van Amstel) artistically interlaced. Of
its twelve rooms, the most remarkable are the parlour and the
physician’s study, containing a library, a collection of preparations
and a collection of shells and artistic objects in ivory, every item of
which is reproduced in miniature.
According to Mr. E. W. Berg, who gives a minute description of this
house in _De Oude Tyd_ (1872), it is said that by this doctor is meant
Christoffel Ludeman, the well-known “wonder-doctor.”
It was a fad with the wealthy to possess these curious silver toys,
which passed from generation to generation. Sometimes the collection
consisted of hundreds of pieces. Mrs. van Varick, of New Amsterdam
(1696), had no less than eighty-three silver toys to divide among her
children.
These silver and gold toys were so artistically made that they attracted
the attention of many travellers, who paid large sums for them. Many
beautiful and quaint specimens are therefore to be seen in the European
Museums and private collections on both sides of the Atlantic.
Sets of dolls’ porcelain were also collected in this century and
preserved in show-cases or china-cabinets, with a collection of dolls’
clothes. These cabinets of dolls’ articles were even found in
farmhouses, and sometimes jewellery and small articles of value were
kept in them.
Many of the poorer houses in the seventeenth century were built of wood
or stone, with wooden gables that projected far over the narrow street,
so far indeed that the occupants of the one could shake hands across the
street with those in the opposite house. Many of these houses were
gradually replaced by newer houses of a more regular aspect. As the
century wears on they increase in height and solidity. As a rule, the
house is of three storeys, with a tiled roof. In the lower floor there
is a row of small windows with small panes set in lead and protected by
ornamental iron-work. These windows admit light into the small office
and entrance-hall, and run along the whole width of the house above the
“_luifel_” (verandah), under which in the daytime wares are offered for
sale, and where on fine evenings the burgher sits with his wife and
family. Sometimes the thrifty housewife may be seen sitting under the
verandah knitting, spinning, sewing, or darning, with her feet on a
foot-rest, and the children playing around her. The baby’s cradle is
sometimes brought out as well. On Saturdays the children are bathed and
washed under the “_luifel_,” without the public taking the least notice.
Gentlemen’s houses, however, have no verandahs, but both sides of the
door or gate are flanked by windows with shutters, and this door is on a
level with the entrance. The arrangement of the windows on the second
floor is like that of the first. Chrysostomus Napolitanus says in 1516,
“The dwelling-houses have nearly all the same shape and architecture.
The back walls do not rise very high, but end in a point and step-like.”
These gable steps were sometimes ornamented with stone vases or images,
and the coping was also decorated. In the seventeenth century the houses
were built narrower but higher, as also the windows, while the wire
screens and the verandahs gradually disappeared. The copings and
ornamentations of the cornice were, however, not less richly sculptured;
and, under the top windows, stone figures, Caryatides, lions and
coats-of-arms were often introduced. In the third storey there were one
or two windows, above which the arms of the proprietor were carved.
Instead of the armorial device, sometimes a figure, a pair of compasses,
or a bell was introduced, from which the house took its name; or again
the family name would be carved in gigantic letters. In the course of
time the name of the occupant was used less than the name of the house
in which he lived. We find mention of the house Blijenburgh,
Moesienbroeck, Cruysenborch, Nuysenborch, Blijensteyn, Kleyn Jerusalem,
’t Huys Beaumont, Groot en Kleyn Rosendaeal, etc. Behind the houses were
gardens with summer-houses, surrounded with fences of trellis-work. In
the common houses a stone-paved hallway leads through the house to an
open back yard, where there is a grass plot to bleach the clothes on,
and where a room is built with a fireplace and kitchen. From the
vestibule a stairway leads to the second floor, which communicates with
a smaller stairway and often with a ladder to the floor above.
Let us enter a rich home and see how the rooms are arranged. We pass
through a great oaken door painted green and furnished with a heavy iron
knocker, to enter a high and commodious vestibule, the walls of which
are hung with pictures, deers’ heads or other hunting trophies. On one
side is a broad oak staircase with a lion, griffin, or dragon
beautifully carved at the base, and holding in his paws the same
coat-of-arms that is carved in front of the gable. Facing the entrance
hangs a magnificent oil painting. In less wealthy homes the vestibule is
encased with blue and white tiles, and the floor is also laid in the
same, and a carved oak or stone bench faces the door. As this
“_voorhuis_,” or vestibule, is used by the less fashionable as a living
apartment, there also stands here a table, and on the wall a mirror in
an ebony frame, and many polished brass vessels and Delft dishes and
plates give a homelike character to the spot. A house of this type has a
verandah outside, on and under which the small merchant conducts his
business, although his office or “_comptoir_” is at the back. If this
happens to be a school, the master or mistress teaches his or her class
under the “_luifel_”; or, if an inn, this is the meeting or
smoking-room.
The “_comptoir_” is also found in the homes of the rich, and the lady of
the house often sits there with her children, not because it is the most
attractive place, but in order to keep the better rooms neat and clean.
In rich houses many of the rooms are known by individual names,—some
according to the use to which they were put, others on account of the
hangings, the name of the occupant, or an important piece of furniture.
Hence we have the salon, dining-room, show-room, the sleeping-room, the
little cabinet (office), the gold leather room, the damask room, the
matted room, the room of Adam and Eve, Mr. Arends’s room, Miss
Emerentia’s room, Mr. Cornelius van Beveren’s sleeping-room, etc., etc.
In wealthy homes the walls of some rooms were encased in tiles,
decorated with painted figures, flowers, arms, or pictorial scenes or
mottoes; and upon these hung many fine paintings in richly carved ebony
frames. In some houses every available space on the wall in every room
was occupied by a picture; so that from top to bottom the rooms were
filled with masterpieces of art. Some rooms on the ground floor were
hung with splendid tapestries, representing hunting-scenes, Biblical
stories, coats-of-arms, mythological and historical legends and stories,
etc., etc. Other rooms were hung with embroidered materials, with red
velvet, with gold or silver flowered borders, or with gold or stamped
leather of various colours and patterns. Sometimes, also, the walls were
panelled and wainscotted, particularly where beds or cupboards stood. In
poor houses the walls were simply whitewashed or covered with square
tiles of gay colours. The ordinary burghers strewed their floors with
fine sand, and often arranged it so deftly by means of the broom in a
design of flowers or geometrical figures that one would think a figured
carpet was laid upon the floor. In rich homes the floor, as a rule, was
covered with fine Spanish matting; and when guests came, a rug or carpet
was spread over this, but on their departure it was carefully rolled up
and put away. Some of the floors—often those of the garret—were laid in
coloured tiles.
One of the principal ornaments in rich houses was the painted glass. In
some rooms every window was adorned with painted glass, but in less
wealthy homes one window had to suffice. This was generally a round one
painted in gaudy hues and neatly framed. Such glass was a favourite
present. Sometimes the engraver had inscribed upon it Dutch or Latin
proverbs; but more frequently it was embellished with the coat-of-arms
of the master of the house, portraits, landscapes, Biblical and popular
stories, such as Reynard the Fox, The Adventures of the four Heems
Children, or The Drolleries of Tyll Eulenspiegel. The ceilings rested on
heavy oak beams with many cross beams; and even in rich houses ceilings
and beams were artistically painted. In the centre of the ceiling was
hung a brass, or gilded wooden chandelier for wax or tallow candles; and
additional light was derived from sconces fastened to the walls and on
either side of the chimney-piece. Occasionally the candelabra were of
crystal. In some rooms models of ships correctly rigged hung from the
beams; and sometimes stuffed animals, heads, fish, weapons, and wedding
ornaments and favours kept them company.
The chimney-piece always received a good deal of attention. It was very
wide and high. Wood and peat were both burned on the large silver,
brass, iron or steel andirons. The space in the overmantel was often
painted by the best master available, or was occupied by a painting in a
carved frame. On either side of the picture were sconces containing wax
candles that illuminated the painting at night. The broad chimney shelf
was occupied with Japanese and Chinese porcelains and lacquers; and in
the summer time the pot that was suspended from a crane in the chimney
was taken away and replaced by large porcelain vases and beakers. A
handsome chimney cloth was usually hung just below the shelf.
Being exceedingly economical, the Dutch could not easily squander money
for pleasures or recreations, but for the “home” they would spend
lavishly. A handsome piece of furniture or silver, beautiful porcelain,
rare tulips, rich curtains and rugs, valuable paintings, fine glass, and
curios from the Far East would induce the opulent Dutchman to part with
large sums; and his wife spent the greater part of her life in
ornamenting and beautifying the home, taking care of the treasures it
contained, and, above all, in keeping the house and its contents clean
and in order. A rich merchant, Asselijn, said:—
_Ziet wat een fraei kasteel! wat heit het me gecost!
Myn gelt is nyet verbrast aan keur van vremde cost.
Voor paerden en gery en zeldzaeme sieraeden
En gaf ik nyet een myt; geen bloem-fluweelgewaden
Versieren ’t stinckend lyf, de logge madenzak.
Myn huys is myn sieraet, myn huys myn beste pack.
Daer voor is myn tresoor, daer voor myn koffer open,
En wat myn huys behoeft, dat haest ick my te koopen._
(See what a beautiful castle! What a sum it costs!
My money is not spent in choice of foreign viands.
For horses and equipages and rare ornaments
I did not spend a mite; no flowery velvet dresses
Adorn the wasting body, the clumsy stomach:
My home is my ornament, my house my best costume,
Therefore my treasury and my coffer are open,
And what my house needs I hasten to buy.)
And Godewijck puts these words into the mouth of a daughter of an
alderman:—
_Myn stoffer is myn swaerd, myn bussem is myn wapen.
Ick kenne geene rust, ick weete van geen slaepen.
Ick denck aen geen salet, ick denck niet aen myn keel.
Geen arbeyt my te swaer, geen zorge my te veel
Om alles gladdekens en sonder smet te maken.
Ik wil niet dat de maegd myn pronkstuck aan zal raken;
Ick selve wrijf en boen, ick flodder en ick schrob,
Ick aes op ’t kleinste stof, ik beef niet voor den tob
Gelyck de pronckmadam._
(My brush is my sword, my besom is my weapon.
I know no rest, I know no sleep.
I don’t think of my room, I don’t think of my throat.
No labour is too heavy, no care I think too much
To make everything smooth and without blemish.
I will not let the maid touch my pretty things;
I, myself, will rub and polish, I will splash and scrub;
I hunt the speck of dust, I do not fear the tub
Like a fine lady.)
These are samples of many speeches in the old comedies, where the women
constantly talk about housecleaning and scrubbing.
English travellers of this period unanimously praised the way the Dutch
houses were kept. One wrote: “They are not large, but neat, beautiful
outside and well furnished inside; and the furniture is so clean and in
good order that it appears to be more an exhibition than for daily use.”
The farms also attracted the attention of the stranger. Another
traveller said: “The Dutch farmer keeps his land as neatly as a courtier
trims his beard; and his house is as choice as a lady who comes out of
her dressing-room. A well-dressed lady cannot look neater than the fine
gable and the thatched roof of a Dutch farmhouse.”
In his _Brief Character of the Low Countries_, Owen Feltham describes an
Amsterdam house of the middle of the seventeenth century. “When you are
entered the house,” he writes, “the first thing you encounter is a
Looking-Glasse. No question but a true Embleme of politick hospitality;
for though to reflect yourself in your own figure, ‘tis yet no longer
than while you are there before it. When you are gone once, it flatters
the next commer, without the least remembrance that you were ere there.
“The next are the vessels of the house marshalled about the room like
watchmen. All is neat as you were in a Citizen’s Wife’s Cabinet; for
unless it be themselves, they let none of God’s creatures lose anything
of their native beauty.
“Their houses, especially in their Cities, are the best eye-beauties of
their Country. For cost and sight, they far exceed our English, but they
want their magnificence. Their lining is yet more rich than their
outside; not in hangings, but pictures, which even the poorest are there
furnisht with. Not a cobler but has his toyes for ornament. Were the
knacks of all their homes set together, there would not be such another
Bartholomew-Faire in Europe....
“Their beds are no other than land-cabines, high enough to need a ladder
or stairs. Up once, you are walled in with Wainscot, and that is a good
discretion to avoid the trouble of making your will every night; for
once falling out else would break your neck promptly. But if you die in
it this comfort you shall leave your friends, that you dy’d in clean
linen.
“Whatsoever their estates be, their houses must be fair. Therefore from
Amsterdam they have banisht seacoale, lest it soyl their buildings, of
which the statlier sort are sometimes sententious, and in the front
carry some conceit of the Owner. As to give you a taste in these:—
‘_Christus Adjutor Meus;
Hoc abdicato Perenne Quero;
Hic Medio tuitus Itur._’
“Every door seems studded with Diamonds. The nails and hinges hold a
constant brightnesse, as if rust there was not a quality incident to
Iron. Their houses they keep cleaner than their bodies; their bodies
than their souls. Goe to one, you shall find the Andirons shut up in
network. At a second, the Warming-pan muffled in Italian Cutworke. At a
third the Sconce clad in Cambrick.”
English travellers are not the only ones to bear witness to the extremes
to which cleanliness was carried by the housewives of the Low Countries.
A French writer, De Parival, says:—
“The wives and daughters scour and rub benches, chests, cupboards,
dressers, tables, plate racks, even the stairs until they shine like
mirrors. Some are so clean that they would not enter any of the rooms
without taking off their shoes and putting on their slippers. The women
put all their energy and pleasure in keeping the house and the furniture
clean. The floors are washed nearly every day and scoured with sand, and
are so neat that a stranger is afraid to expectorate on them. If the
city women keep their houses clean, the farmers’ wives are not less
particular. They carry this cleanliness even into the stables. They
scour everything, even the iron chains and mounts until they shine like
silver.”
The same traveller also says: “The furniture of the principal burghers,
besides gold and silver ware, consists of tapestries, costly paintings
(for which no money is saved, but rather eked out in economical living),
beautifully carved woodwork, such as tables, treasure-chests, etc., and
pewter, brass, earthenware, porcelains, etc.”
Another foreigner says: “Their interior decorations are far more costly
than our own [English], not only in hangings and ornaments, but in
pictures, which are found even in the poorer houses. No farmer or even
common labourer is found who has not some kind of interior ornaments and
so varied that if all were put together it would often fill a booth at
the fair.”
Chrysostomus Napolitanus, who visited Holland in 1516, says: “_Goede
Hemel! welk eene netheid van het gereedschap! welk eene kostelijkheid
van bedden en welk eene blankheid van servetten, tafels en tafellakens!
welk een sieraad aan de stoelen! welke zindelijkheid eindelijk aan
muren, vloer en al het overige! Den bodem der spijs-, noen- en
slaapvertrekken bestrooien zij met een weinig zand, opdat, zoo er bij
geval iets morsigs op mocht vallen, zoo iemand somwijlen er vuile voeten
op mocht zetten, de vloer zelve er niet door besmet zou worden, maar men
het terstond, eer het er zich aan vasthecht, met bezems uit zou kunnen
keeren._”
(“Good Heavens! What a neatness of the utensils! how costly the beds and
bedding, and how white the sheets, serviettes and tablecloths! What an
ornamentation on the chairs, and, lastly, what cleanliness of the
floors, walls and everything! The floors of the eating, sleeping and
sitting rooms are strewn with a little sand, so that if anything should
drop and one should accidentally step upon it, the floor would not be
soiled, and before the matter could stick to it, the dirt might be
removed with a broom.”)
Fifty years later, Guicciardini, after praising the general state of the
civilization and courtesy of the people, and remarking on the beauty of
the public and private buildings, says: “But after all this if one
enters their homes and notices the abundance of all kinds of furniture,
and the order and neatness of everything, it gives one great pleasure,
and one looks upon it as a wonder. And indeed it is, for there is
nothing like it anywhere else in the world.”
The inventories of the day give evidence of a great variety and number
of cleaning utensils. Brooms and brushes of all kinds, tubs, pails,
buckets, scrubbers tied with red leather, dust brushes called hogs,
floor brushes, hearth hair brushes with brass and wooden handles occur
in every house. One inventory of 1685 shows how well supplied a rich
home was with articles for cleaning and scrubbing. These are as follows:
five whiting brushes, one brush to clean the floors, five rubbers, three
small painting brushes, four dust brushes, two floor brushes, two hair
brushes, two hearth brooms, one chamber broom, one rake brush, one
brush, one hay broom without a stick, and two Bermudian brooms with
sticks. Cooking and cleaning implements and utensils were kept in the
kitchen and in the cellar underneath. Pictures by Dutch masters show
that in clement weather a good deal of housework was done in the tiled
court or yard adjoining the kitchen.
As an example of the ordinary burgher’s home, let us take the house on
one of the corners of the Mat Wharf on the Voorstraat in Dordrecht,
dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century, and dwelt in by
Andreas Hulstman Janz, merchant in wood, his wife Elizabeth Balen
Matthews, and his children Jan, Christine and Alette.
The house has a sharp pointed gable and is three storeys high. The
windows are provided with balconies, and a larger verandah runs along
above the blue stone stoop. On each side of the rounded door embellished
with iron-work are small windows supplied with trellises, as are
likewise the four windows above the verandah that light the little
office or “_comptoir_.” As we tap the iron knocker, a man or maid
servant opens the door, and we notice that the little windows dimly
divined through the creeper-shaded trellis are set in lead and supply
but little light. The front hall runs on the left-hand side directly
through the house, opening into a little yard that communicates with
some smaller apartments and the kitchen.
On the right hand side is a small apartment, called the “little
_comptoir_,” the favourite room of the mother and her daughters when the
housework is done, for they can see through the trellis and “watch the
street.”
In the hallway, a narrow staircase leads to the second floor, “the best
part,” where the “show” and “guestrooms” are situated, while on the
third floor are the bedrooms, and in the garret, the drying-room,
mangle-room, brass and tin rooms. Here also the peat and firewood are
kept. Passing up the stairway, we enter the living-room, which looks
upon the front hall, and from which, when the door is open, a view of
the street is obtained. This arrangement is familiar in many Dutch
pictures, notably in that of _The Sick Lady_ (Plate XXXVII).
The living-room is rather sombre. The white walls are partly covered
with pictures, and the floor is strewn with fine sand in a pattern
resembling a carpet. Three large pieces of furniture are conspicuous,
two oak cupboards standing on heavy ball feet, their broad flat tops
ornamented with handsome beakers and vases of porcelain; the third piece
is a large _sacredaan kas_ hung with green curtains. In this the library
is contained, consisting of a few books of travel, atlases, poetry by
Cats, Vondel, Godewijck, Antonides, a number of religious works,
commentaries on the catechism, hymn-books, the medical works of Battus
and Beverwijck, and a few translated novels (for in this day there was
but little Dutch fiction). In the centre of the room there stands a
large and heavy oak table, with low chairs of the same, and covered with
leather seats arranged symmetrically around it. In one corner of the
room we note a reading-desk on which rests an enormous Bible bound in
leather, with great brass mounts. The chimneypiece is enormous; if it is
winter, a tremendous peat and wood fire is perpetually burning; if
summer, the fireplace is ornamented with large, handsome faïence, or
porcelain vases. This is the room in which the family gathers for
breakfast, dinner and supper, and passes the winter evenings pleasantly
enough.
From this room we enter the kitchen. We hardly know what to notice
first—the marble tiles shining like glass, the brass and pewter gleaming
like gold and silver from the racks and dressers, the well-filled china
closet, the rose-red painted table, with the yellow painted
rush-bottomed chairs, or the general effect of charm, cheerfulness,
colour and neatness. We are told that the lady of the house calls this
her “holy” (as she calls the show-room the “tabernacle”), and allows no
cooking to be done here. There is a small back kitchen built for this
purpose called “_snuiver_” (cooking shed), where all the food is
prepared.
Before leaving this room we must describe the dresser, in which all the
articles for breakfast service are kept and, in poor houses, left-over
food. The used napkins are folded and placed here, and there are drawers
for table linen and other small utensils. It contains a candle-drawer,
and upon one of its shelves stands the heavy brass candlestick. The
peculiar extinguisher is called familiarly “the cat’s head,” on account
of its resemblance to the head of a cat. This is narrower at the bottom
than the top, and has a handle on each side. This stands next to the
peat-box, often the lower part of a pot cupboard opened and shut with a
slide Underneath the chimney is placed the fire-pot, for stoves are not
known. These innovations, imported from Germany, were heartily despised
and called contemptuously “stink-pots” and “muff-boxes.”
Omitting the cellar and store-rooms, we pass upstairs to the bedroom of
the master and mistress on the second floor. Pictures, chiefly family
portraits, adorn the walls. The floor is of wood, highly polished, and
so slippery that great care is required in walking across it.
The furniture consists of chairs with tall backs and low seats, a carved
table with a tapestry or rug cover, a large oak cabinet and a cupboard
on four legs, the treasure-chest and the wash-buffet, with wash-mops and
toilet appliances. A heavy green damask curtain hangs before the bed,
which is so high above the floor that it must be entered with the aid of
a small stepladder that stands in one corner of the room next to the
brass warming-pan. Sometimes a cradle, called “coach,” for the baby
stands at the foot and sometimes under the bed.
These beds have often been ridiculed. The bedstead, however, soon
supplanted the panelled bed, although it has never banished it
altogether.
The inventory of Gertrude van Mierevelt (1639), wife of the painter Van
Mierevelt of Delft who died in 1638, gives an excellent idea of a
comfortable Dutch home of the early seventeenth century. First should be
mentioned six beds with handsome draperies, tapestries, rich furniture
covers, and other woollen articles (_wollegoet_), that prove how much
the artist and his wife liked rich textiles. The _tinnewerk_, consisting
of plates, dishes, salt-cellars, etc., shows that the table-service was
of pewter, although twenty-eight articles in porcelain and faïence,
consisting of plates, bowls and dishes, valued at about twenty-six
florins, are also enumerated. The house also contained a great many
copper articles and utensils, from tongs and shovels to those fine
_repoussée_ dishes so highly prized to-day by collectors; and there was
a considerable amount of ironware, including two lanterns. There were
some statues in plaster, including a “Suzanne,” ninety-four paintings,
chiefly religious, and family portraits, although one representing
“Pomona and Flora” is mentioned. The artist also had some violins, a
little book of engravings, some wooden panels, and a library of
thirty-seven volumes. Many of these were illustrated, and dealt with
religious and historical subjects; and as they were all in Dutch it
would seem that the artist could read no other language. Especially
noticeable is the fine collection of linen, the pride of the mistress.
She had no less than twenty-five pairs of sheets, a hundred and eighteen
serviettes and fifteen tablecloths, one of which fetched as much as
fifteen florins at the sale in 1639, and another of damask (_damast
taefellaecken_), twenty florins.
The most important room of the home of a burgher of moderate means was
the hall, or general living-room. This, as so many pictures show, had a
great fireplace, at which meals were often cooked. The furniture
consisted of tables, chairs, cabinets, and, very frequently, a bed. The
chimney-piece is massive, high and often elaborately carved, and above
it a landscape, fruit piece, Kermesse, flower-piece or battle-scene by a
favourite painter, is hung to form part of the decoration. This
chimney-piece is, moreover, filled with porcelain dishes, cups, plates,
teapots and curios. Below it hangs an ornamental chimney cloth
embroidered with gaily-coloured flowers, red or green silk, white
muslin, or figured calico. The hearth is framed in blue and white tiles,
furnished with an iron fireback and supplied with brass and irons, racks
for the fire-irons, pot-hooks, spits, a crane on which a large brass
kettle hangs, and small hooks from which the bellows, hearth brooms,
shovel, tongs, etc., hang conveniently for use. A brass or copper
warming-pan is not far away. The walls are adorned with pictures, a
large looking-glass in an ebony frame, a wall-board with hooks for small
cans and jugs and a plate rack or two in which some handsome plates and
dishes are formally arranged. A great linen press, or _kas_, filled with
tablecloths and napkins, the head of which is decorated with large
Japanese beakers and smaller cups and vases, stands on one side of the
room, and a glass case filled with teapots, cups and saucers, dishes,
etc., and an East India cabinet on the other. A gaudily-painted
Hindeloopen clock ticks on the wall. A large table stands in the centre
of the room, covered with a heavy Turkish rug or “carpet,” and several
little tables are conveniently disposed. The Russia leather, Turkey work
and matted chairs are symmetrically arranged around the walls beneath
the many pictures of landscape, interiors or still-life. The windows are
curtained, the hangings of red or green striped silk or flowered calico
matching those of the bedstead, which can be completely closed like a
large box. On the four corners of the cornice of this bed are bunches of
feathers or a painted wooden ornament. The casement windows have tiny
diamond-shaped or round panes set in lead, and on the outside creepers
and roses are carefully trained, forming a beautiful framework. Upon the
sills stand flower-pots in which a bright tulip or other favourite
flower is blooming.
The first apartment entered from the front door of a merchant’s house
was the “_voorhuis_,” or front room, where visitors were formally
received. This was more or less handsomely furnished in accordance with
the means of the owner. It was usually a sort of hall, sometimes of
considerable dimensions.
A “_voorhuis_,” as it appears in an inventory of 1686, contains a very
handsome marble table with a carved wooden frame, a table covered with a
handsome cloth, and a very fine tall clock. The seats consisted of seven
Russia leather chairs and one matted chair furnished with a cushion. The
room was lighted with three glass windows with leaden frames, handsomely
curtained, and eleven pictures decorated the walls. The value of this
furniture was £125 in present money.
In many houses the second floor was only used for “show rooms,” and the
family slept in either the lower or the top floor. Bernagie writes: “If
you go through the town, you will find many houses where the husband is
afraid so much as even to smell at his second floor rooms. They always
remain downstairs. Have they ever so many courtly rooms, they will eat,
for their wives’ sake, in the small back kitchen.”
This was the case in most of the burghers’ houses. These show-rooms were
used only on some special occasion; otherwise they were never entered
except for cleaning. This took place weekly and oftener, with special
cleaning in the spring and autumn. Rooms in constant use were daily
stripped and cleaned, and the housewife barely allowed herself time to
eat. Some enthusiastic housekeepers—although wealthy—would not allow the
servants to clean their best rooms, but wielded “the scrubbing-brush,
rubbing-towel and floor-cloth.” There are examples of houses where from
thirty to forty pails of water were used every day, and where the
servants did nothing but rub and scrub and scour from morning till
night. Many of the houses were exceedingly damp in consequence, and the
inmates constantly ill. Notwithstanding the ridicule the Dutch housewife
suffered in books and on the stage, her mania for cleaning was so great
that she cared not at all if the house was termed “hell” and the
cleaners “she-devils.”
In some families home was made still more uncomfortable on account of
the little amount of cooking done. Certain dishes were prepared once a
week and then “warmed up,” so that the stove would not be soiled. In
North Holland a month would sometimes elapse between the making of fires
for cooking in the fireplace. All the cooking was done by means of a
little boiling water in the fire-pot.
The show-room, or “holy of holies,” as the Dutch woman was pleased to
call it, was furnished according to the means or class of the owner.
Among the higher classes a party was often given in it. In such homes
the floor was covered with expensive Turkish rugs, and the walls hung
with tapestries, silk damask or gold leather. These were further adorned
with Venetian mirrors and paintings worth their weight in gold. The
chairs were of rare exotic or foreign woods supplied with embroidered
cushions, or seats of Utrecht velvet, and the other furniture consisted
of beautifully painted or inlaid or mosaic tables, beautifully carved
cupboards, and rare cabinets inlaid with silver, ivory or tortoiseshell,
and filled with the finest egg-shell porcelain. Porcelains and curios
adorned the high carved chimney.
In older aristocratic homes the “show-room” was less lavishly furnished,
but none the less the pride of the mistress. The floor was covered with
mats, the walls with painted linen, or handsome paintings; but in rare
porcelain it was the equal of any alderman’s or mayor’s wife.
As time wore on, the walnut cabinet supplanted the carved or oak
cupboard, the _vitrine_ took the place of the china-cabinet and the
console and glass appeared between the windows, and finally we arrive at
the period when the small bookcase with glass or mirror doors appears
and chairs covered with figured rep.
The kitchen usually contained a bedstead with feather bed, pillows and
curtains, a looking-glass in a black frame, a cupboard, chairs, a table,
andirons, innumerable brooms and brushes, flint and steel for striking a
light, shovels, tongs, gridirons, dripping-pans, whetting-boards for
knives, tubs, butter firkins (earthenware, pewter, brass and tin),
knives, forks, spoons, stills, churns, hanging boards, can-boards, pots,
pails, skimmers, funnels, salt-boxes, candle-boxes, frying-pans,
beakers, candlesticks, dripping-pans, skewers, stewing-pans with covers,
copper kettles, chafing-dishes, hour-glasses, lamps, hammers, tankards,
tin pans to roast apples, pot-hangers, dishes to boil fish on, mortars
and pestles, waffle-irons, bellows, kettles, a birdcage, saucepans,
platters, cans, pepper mills, tin ware to bake sugar cakes, marzipan
pans, racks to hang clothes on, wicker baskets, hampers, tubs, glass
knockers to beat clothes, smoothing irons, tin watering pots to wet
clothes, rainwater casks, etc., etc.
In order to gain an idea of a lady’s bedroom of the period, let us visit
that of the wealthy Mrs. Lidia van der Dussen, the daughter of Jacob van
Beveren, alderman of Dordrecht and bailiff and dike-count of the Country
of Strijen. The house is one of those with a high peaked gable; it has
oblong round-headed windows with small panes set in lead, and a façade
decorated with carvings and arms, while the name of the house is
inscribed in marble at the top. Green and red damask curtains at the
windows give the exterior an air of cheerfulness and comfort. We enter.
To the right of the large vestibule, the floor of which is laid in
marble tiles of blue and white, a wide marble staircase leads to a wide
marble hallway. The floor of this is covered with the finest Spanish
matting, and on each side of the hall are doors opening into various
rooms. These heavy doors are of oak, and are elaborately carved or
painted with cherubs, shepherds and shepherdesses, etc. Opening one of
these doors at the rear—the quietest part of the house—we find ourselves
in a large room, the stone floor of which is covered with rich rugs,
while tiles ornamented with bright pictorial designs, or mottoes, cover
the walls. The dark and heavy serge curtains that hang at the windows
prevent us from distinguishing the furniture of the room very clearly;
but we gradually make out the articles one by one. We note the splendid
array of vases and beakers that adorn the wide mantelpiece, and also the
top of the china cabinet of _sacredaan_ wood, and the massive and richly
carved, or deeply panelled, linen wardrobe, or _kas_. A handsome walnut
bedstead stands in one corner of the room. The four twisted pillars
support a canopy, from which fall heavy serge curtains, that conceal a
wealth of fine linen and Flemish lace. The four corners of the canopy
are surmounted by the favourite ornament of the period, the “_pomme_”
consisting of a bunch of plumes,—in this instance of green, red and
black. The walls, although encased in tiles, are hung with pictures in
ebony frames, in addition to which there is a large Venetian mirror set
in a rich crystal frame. A drop-leaf table stands in the centre of the
room, surrounded by several chairs with high backs and low seats. The
woodwork of these chairs, shining like glass from the devoted polishing
it receives, is, like the china-cabinet already mentioned, of
_sacredaan_. We also note in this room a beautifully made wicker cot, or
basket, for the baby.
In early days this article of furniture was of large dimensions, and the
nurse sat beside it with a large screen at the side to keep away
draughts. Some of these cots were shaped like cradles without the
rockers, and were supplied with a shelf or wing on the side as a
protection from the heat of the peat fire. At a later period of this
century, the cradle rested on two rounded rockers, and had a rounded
hood or canopy. It was made of plum-tree wood, or of wicker lined with
yellow satin and trimmed with costly lace. Royalty was rocked in cradles
of gold or silver; that of Charles V, however, shown in the Brussels
Museum, is of wood, carved in the Gothic style and painted. A primitive
form of Dutch cradle was suspended from iron rings on two posts of wood,
and a later kind, recommended by ‘s Gravesande, had a spring on one side
and a weight on the other, so that when once put in motion it would
continue rocking for a long time.
Near the cradle stood the “fire” or “napkin basket,” also made of wicker
and covered with serge, or with richer material if the home was one of
wealth. In the inventory of Vrouwe Reepmaker (1670), for example, “white
and satin basket covers” occur. The “fire” or “napkin basket” contained
everything pertaining to the baby’s outfit; and mention is made in the
inventories of “a neat,” “a simple,” or “a costly fire basket,”
according to the circumstances of the owner. The “fire basket” with its
outfit was given as a present to the young mother by the husband’s
mother or one of the aunts. In a celebrated farce of the period, Old
Brechtje says: “_Van mijn peetje een wonderlicke schoone corf ecregen,
die voor al myn kyeren eef edient. Ze eef hem van lapwerck en fraeykens
van croonsaey en passementen emaeckt._” (“I got from my aunt a
wonderfully beautiful basket, which has served for all my children. She
made it of patchwork, and covered it nicely with serge and embroidery.”)
On a table, an open buffet, or _dressoir_, or a glass cabinet, all the
baby’s silver was arrayed, such as the herb-box, the pap-pot, the
cinnamon bowl with cover and spoon, and the large clothes tray—all
inherited gifts from godfathers and godmothers of many generations. Each
piece is variously inscribed, sometimes dating as far back as the
sixteenth century, or earlier. This large silver tray holds the costly
clothing that will be used at the christening, such as the cambric and
lace robes and the red velvet robe lined with red silk, the satin tufted
blanket and other articles of baby dress. Nor must the large pincushion
be forgotten, on which the baby’s name will be printed with pins.
The bride’s basket was just as important as the baby’s basket. This was
also made of wicker, and, according to the means of the parents, lined
with rich or simple material. It was adorned with flowers, and
contained, not the bride’s dresses, but the wedding-shawl and ornaments
belonging to it, the jewels and gloves that the bride was to wear at the
wedding, and also the gifts of the bridegroom.
The “bride’s crown” and “bride’s throne” received a great deal of
attention from the loving hands that were busy with the preparations for
the festivities. The house was turned into a perfect bower on the
occasion of a wedding. Garlands of palms, flowers and evergreens were
interwoven, and hung upon the walls with the green boughs that were
variously twined and twisted. Gold and silver favours, love-knots,
marriage-bells and other devices and letters forming mottoes and
riddles, were displayed among the greenery and flowers, and the name or
initials of the bride and groom were to be seen on every side.
Magnificent Japanese vases filled with flowers, particularly the
brilliant tulip, were placed in every available space. Handsome mirrors
were removed from other rooms and hung among the garlands and flowers to
add more light and beauty to the rooms. Not unfrequently the outside of
the house received its share of decoration, when the street doors were
covered with greenery and garlands were hung from all the windows.
The Dutch made lavish use of flowers and greenery on festive occasions.
When Charles II was called home from Holland in 1660 to ascend the empty
throne, he received a magnificent farewell entertainment by the
States-General. The festivities lasted over several days, and are
described in considerable detail by Sir John Lower, who was present. In
his book we get an occasional glimpse of the furniture of the day,
particularly its disposition on gala occasions. The great sideboards, or
cupboards, are mentioned with admiration. The great feasts were given in
the Mauritshuis, The Hague, which was the scene of lavish hospitality.
Describing one of these entertainments, Lower tells us: “From the centre
of the lover or open roof descended a Royal Crown, very gallantly made,
in the midst of four lusters or crystal candlesticks, which with many
other candlesticks, arms of silver and a great number of torches,
enlightened all corners much better than the Sun could have done at
midday. They gave particularly a marvellous lustre to the two bottoms of
the chimney which is on the left side, where two partitions of painted
wood shut up as many cupboards of crystal glasses, and a great store of
vessels and of silver plate and vermillion gilt. The Hall was furnished
with ordinary Tapestry, which is of crimson damask, and had no other
adornments but that here and there there were some fair pictures, and
that the ends of the chimnies and the void places above the cross-bar
windows were adorned with garlands, leaves and figures of trees loaden
with oranges and mingled with all sorts of flowers, which formed not
only a very regular compartment, but wonderfully refreshed also the
chamber and charmed no less the smell by their perfume than they pleased
the sight through the diversity of their rich enamel.”