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.

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:—

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:—

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:—

And Godewijck puts these words into the mouth of a daughter of an alderman:—

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:—

“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.”