Miniatures in Amsterdam (September 2012)

Hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving weekend.

The holiday season has me thinking of dolls and toys so I decided to do a post on the miniatures we saw on our trip to the Netherlands in September.

Here it is. 

In the eighteenth century, some dolls houses were designed to teach young ladies how to manage a household. Others, were the admired collections of adult women.

(Much like today)

 

These two dolls houses or cabinets, belonged to Petronella Oortman Dunois.

I was a little confused initially. One is labeled as belonging to Petronella Oortman and the other Petronella Dunois. Apparently one was collected before she married and the other after.

They are displayed side by side in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

 

Both dolls cabinets are behind glass so photography is a little tricky.

If you look in the first photo, you can see that they had stairs set up in front of the glass so even short people like me (vertically challenged?) can see quite well.

 Here the maid is doing her ironing.

Not my favorite task,,,,,

 The baby doll in her walker is quite posh.

 

 Look at the tiny glassware on the table.

 Bedroom, with traditional Dutch built in bed.

 

 The entrance hall.

 

 I believe this would have been the parlour.

I love the painting o the walls and the ornate fireplace.

I am glad we went in September, it gets cold there in the winter.

 

 The Dutch are famous for their blue and white china.

This collection is wonderful.

 

 This is not really a dolls house, for one thing, there are no dolls and it is obviously not a house.

I would take it anyway!

This is The William Rex, a model ship, also in the Rijksmuseum.

I was entranced. The ship sits on a stand and my head came to just above the top row of cannon.

According to the sign, it was never a real ship.

I'm not sure what it's purpose was.

Look at the carvings on the right.

 Detail views of the William Rex model ship.

Can you see why I was so impressed?

 

 This is a much smaller dolls cabinet.

It is on loan to the Amsterdam City Museum.

This cabinet features miniature silver items made in the city during the eighteenth century.

 

 Apparently the Dutch like their miniatures.

This one is on display in the Heineken brewery. It features an early member of the Heineken family experimenting with ways to make their beer even better.

Apparently it worked.

 

 

Here is another Heineken display box.

 

If you have not seen it already, have a look at my post on the Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle 

 

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Cheers,

Kat