Page 2 - Women Collectors and the Rise of the Porcelain Cabinet (Collecting history in Europe)

Fig. 2 cabinet and a banqueting hall. An inventory drawn began to be moved out of the Kunstkammer setting into
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Jan Matthhijsz after Pieter
Post, Front of Huis ten Bosch, up in 1641 records that it contained 496 pieces other rooms.
1655. Etching, 29.3 x 38 cm. of Kraak and Blanc de Chine porcelain as well as
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam inv. Venetian glasses and brass vessels, positioned on However, the new cabinet created by Amalia van
no. RP-P-AO-12-96-6.
door lintels, mantelpieces and on a total of 53 shelves Solms at Huis ten Bosch was the fi rst instance of a
along the walls. Seven Dutch paintings depicting room that formed a unifi ed whole, in which the wall
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market scenes completed the décor of this ‘Dutch’ coverings, furnishings and porcelain were all in an
– not Chinese, interestingly – dining room. It is Asian style. This country residence close to The Hague
worth noting that by this time Chinese porcelain was commissioned by Amalia and construction began
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was already regarded as a typical feature of a Dutch in 1645 (Fig. 2). After the death of her husband in
interior. Lady Arundel cultivated close relations with 1647, she had the palace and particularly the Orange
the court in The Hague and lived in Holland during Hall (Oran je zaal) redesigned to commemorate and
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the English Civil War, remaining there until her glorify the memory of Prince Frederick Henry.
death. Numerous other English Royalists who lived in Whilst this hall, the Sael van Oranje or Salle d’Orange,
exile in Holland during the 1650s promoted cultural which became eponymous for the palace, still exists
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exchange between the two countries. New ways of much in its original form, the living quarters were
exhibiting the growing collections of porcelain were later completely altered, so that their appearance in
evidently being tried out not only in Holland but also around 1650 can now only be reconstructed from
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in England, through which these collections gradually inventories, travel accounts and engravings. Amalia

172 CHINESE AND JAP ANESE P ORCELAIN FOR THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE

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