Page 3 - Women Collectors and the Rise of the Porcelain Cabinet (Collecting history in Europe)

herself occupied the eastern apartment on the served as a porcelain cabinet. There is no record in
ground fl oor. In conformity with the French model, it the inventories of any other place where the porcelain
consisted of a succession of rooms, which decreased might have been kept, and yet a porcelain cabinet is
in size and increased in level of intimacy, namely mentioned. This assumption is supported by the fact
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an antechamber, (state) bedroom, large and small that all the cabinets created in direct succession to
cabinets and a dressing room. This is where the use of this one combined both porcelain and lacquer.
the word cabinet for small rooms housing porcelain
or other treasures originated, since it was these The artistic scheme of Huis ten Bosch as a whole
rooms within the apartments that were converted was designed for the glorifi cation of the House of
for this purpose. Among the furnishings were some Orange. It included not only a great many allegorical
of the earliest Japanese lacquer items imported to paintings but also the most precious objects that it
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Holland, for example a balustrade with mother-of- was possible to collect in the mid-17 century, namely
th
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pearl and gold lacquer on a black ground , which Asian lacquer and porcelain. Asian objects, which
was ordered in Japan in 1640 by the VOC as a gift for were considered to be specifi cally Dutch luxury items
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Amalia – albeit probably at her own request . The fact (along with silk, tea, etc.), and whose commercial
that this balustrade was set up in front of the state value accounted for much of the prosperity of the
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bed demonstrates the high status assigned to this Netherlands, were fi tting symbols of both the
exotic item and its function as the principal object in dynasty’s predominant role in the country and the
the state bedroom: by demarcating and accentuating nobility of this aristocratic family.
the bed, the ‘Chineser Schranckwerck’ was guaranteed
to catch the eye of every visitor. With this, Amalia A few years after the installation of the chinoiserie
succeeded in evoking astonishment on two counts: it cabinet at Huis ten Bosch, similar cabinets began
was the fi rst time that a bedroom balustrade following to appear at other courts. Several lacquer rooms
the French model had been set up in a Dutch home are known to have existed at Rosenborg Castle in
and, what is more, it featured exotic Japanese lacquer Denmark in the 1660s. Kirsten Munk (1598–1658),
work. Whilst the iconography of the ‘large cabinet’ second wife of Christian IV of Denmark, owned
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adjacent to the bedroom was devoted to Amalia’s such a cabinet, although no details of it are known.
widowhood, with paintings and black-and-gold walls Between 1663 and 1665 Frederick III (1609–1670) had
symbolising her vidua inconsolabilis, the furnishings the room at Rosenborg known as the Golden Room,
of the last and most intimate room, the ‘small which was located on the fi rst fl oor of the north-west
cabinet’, gleamed with satin bearing fl oral designs tower, adjacent to his audience chamber, converted
on a blue ground with yellow bands. Blue-and- into an ‘Indian lacquer cabinet’; it is thought to be the
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orange, blue-and-yellow, or blue-and-gold colour oldest surviving lacquer room in Europe. It served
schemes frequently appear in the palaces of the as a private audience chamber in which ambassadors
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female members of the House of Orange and may be were received. Its wall panels consist of chinoiserie-
regarded as a reference to the heraldic colours of the style, partly embossed gilt lacquer painting on a black
dynasty. 20 ground, produced by the Dutch painter François
de Bray. Frederick III’s bedroom on the ground
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It was not until a few years later, probably shortly fl oor on the northern side was also decorated by the
after 1654, that Amalia had the walls of this cabinet same painter, fi rstly in 1667 in lacquer with a green
covered with Japanese lacquer panels. This was ground set with imitation tortoiseshell frames. A little
probably the fi rst time Europe had seen such a thing later, in 1668–70, the room was further embellished
and it is known to have caused quite a sensation. She with chinoiserie gold painting, some of the motifs
and her husband had collected diverse objects made for which were taken from recent contemporary
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of Japanese lacquer, including lacquer boxes, which publications on China. There is no indication
she had cut to the size of wall panels, thus acquiring a that porcelain was displayed in these two rooms,
completely new use. In addition, numerous mother- particularly because there are no shelves or consoles
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of-pearl objects were set into the walls and it was on the walls. After Frederick III’s death, his daughter-
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almost certainly here that Amalia displayed her large in-law Charlotte Amalie von Hessen-Kassel (1650–
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collection of 398 pieces of porcelain. Although 1714) evidently took over the bedroom on the ground
sources can only confi rm that it was fi tted out as a fl oor. She had several Chinese porcelain fi gures put
lacquer room, it is nevertheless highly probable that up over the doors and planned a chinoiserie-style
this is where the porcelain was kept, and thus it also bed. Although on her death Charlotte Amalie left
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