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Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, displayed in two rows of three shelves, placed one
                                                             above the other.  Louise de Coligny may have acquired her passion for porcelain
                                                                          448
                                                             as early as 1604, when she was asked to select porcelain from the cargo of a ship
                                                             captured by the VOC, in all probability the Santa Catarina.  A description written
                                                                                                               449
                                                             in 1634 indicates that Catharine Belgica (1578–1648), a daughter of William I from
                                                             his third marriage who lived in Noordeinde Palace from 1622 to 1648, displayed her
                                                             porcelain on red- and gilt-painted shelves alongside large porcelain pots placed on
                                                             stands.  Two years earlier, in 1632, Amalia van Solms-Braunfels, who was married
                                                                  450
                                                             to  William  I’s  fourth  legitimate  son  Frederick  Henry  of  Orange,  third  Stadholder
                                                             of the States General, had created a cabinet, and around 1632–1634 a gallery, to
                                                             display porcelain along with other curiosities at Noordeinde Palace.  In 1639, the
                                                                                                                      451
                                                             Amsterdam Chamber of the VOC asked the Zeeland Chamber to set aside various
                                                             types  of  the  finest  porcelain  to  be  presented  as  gift  to  Amalia.   We  know  that
                                                                                                                    452
                                                             Amalia’s porcelain collection increased considerably in 1642. That year, during the
                        448   Mentioned in Juliet Claxton, ‘The Countess of
                          Arundel’s Dutch Pranketing Room: an inventory   visit of Queen Henrietta Maria and her daughter Princess Maria Henrietta Stuart
                          of  all  the  parcells  or  Purselin,  glasses  and  other   to the Dutch Republic, the VOC sent deputies to The Hague with porcelain gifts
                          Goods now remaining in the Pranketing Roome at
                          Tart Hall, 8th Sept 1641’,  Journal of the History of   for them and Amalia.  Maria and Amalia each received 642 pieces of porcelain. 454
                                                                               453
                          Collections,  Volume 22, Issue 2, 2010, p. 189; and
                          Cordula Bischoff, ‘Women collectors and the rise of   Frederick Henry and his wife and cousin Amalia, who were heirs of the House of
                          the porcelain cabinet’, in Van Campen and Eliëns,   Orange, established a court in The Hague that could be compared to European royal
                          2014, p. 171.
                        449   Mentioned in A.M.L.E. Erkelens, ‘Die Porzellan-  courts in France, Spain and England, through displays of wealth, by securing political
                          sammlung der Amalia van Solms: Aufstellungsweise
                          und Einfluss in Deutschland’, in W. Savelsberg and   alliances through marriage and above all by building palaces, and becoming prominent
                          C. Völkel (eds.), Die Niederlande und Deutschland.   art collectors and patrons.  The princesses of the House of Orange, as convincingly
                                                                                  455
                          Aspekte der Beziehungen zweier Länder im 17. Und
                          18. Jahrhundert, Dessau, 2000, p. 112; and Bischoff,   argued by Bischoff, created rooms with large porcelain collections in their palaces that
                          2014, p. 264, note 81.
                        450   Mentioned in Erkelens, 2000, p. 112; and Bischoff,   served not only as symbols of their high status, but at the same time represented their
                          2014, p. 171.                      political and dynastic interests.
                                                                                      456
                          I
                        451   n 1648–1649, after the death of her husband,
                          Amalia van Solms had a two-part room created as a   Van Campen and Sargent have noted that in the early seventeenth century
                          ‘groote porceleyn-cabinet’ in her newly established
                          apartments at Noordeinde. Erkelens, 2000, pp.   porcelain also gained a prominent decorative function in the interior of the households
                          108-115; and C. Willemijn Fock, ‘The Apartments   of middle class residents, who used it to show their prosperity.  Emulating the taste
                                                                                                                457
                          of Frederick Henry and Amalia of Solms; Princely
                          Splendour and the Triumph of Porcelain’, in Peter   for acquiring and collecting porcelain of the Oranges/Stadholders of the Dutch
                          van der Ploeg and Carola Vermeeren (eds.), Princely
                          Patrons. The Collection of Frederick Henry of Orange   Republic and upper classes, the urban middle class began to display small pieces of
                          and Amalia of Solms in The Hague, Zwolle, 1997, pp.   porcelain inside hanging cupboards in private rooms. For example, the inventory of
                          76–86, p. 8of. Mentioned in Bischoff, 2014, p. 171.
                        452   Mentioned in Fock, 1997, p. 80.  the estate of Geertrut Uytten Engh, the widow of a well-known lawyer who died
                        453   Viallé, 2010, p. 190.
                        454   VOC 148, Resoluties van de Heren  Zeventien,   in 1616, lists in her bedroom a closed hanging cupboard which contains silverwork
                          November 25, 1642. Cited in Viallé, 2010, pp. 207–  and ‘2 porcelain cups with silver bases’.  The appreciation for porcelain was so high
                                                                                             458
                          209. Mentioned in Van Campen, 2014, p. 197.
 Fig. 3.2.1.22  Family in Prayer before Mealtime  455   Mentioned in Hugh J. Mason, ‘Charikleia at   among the middle class that silver or silver-gilt mounts were sometimes added to some
 Oil on panel, 120.5cm x 191cm  the Mauritshuis’, in Marília P. Futre Pinheiro   pieces, a custom that as we saw occurred earlier in Portugal, Spain and the Southern
 Anonymous, Dutch Republic, dated 1627  and  Stephen  J.  Harrison  (eds.),  Fictional
                          Traces: Receptions of the Ancient Novel, Vol.
 Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht    2,  Ancient  Narrative  Supplementum  14.2,   Netherlands. Small hanging cupboards with glass doors for displaying small precious
 (inv. no. RMCC s49)      Groningen, 2011, p. 9; and Bischoff, 2014,    objects appear to have been popular during the 1620s and 1630s, as suggested by
                          p. 181.
 Fig. 3.2.1.23  Kraak bowl   456   Ibid., pp. 188–189.       an engraving showing two designs for wall cupboards published in series Boutique
 Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province  457   Jan van Campen, ‘Kraakporselein ‘tot oogen lust   Menuseries in 1621, and then again in 1642.  This would most probably have been
                                                                                                  459
 Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627)  en pronkery’’,  Keramika, Jaargang 14, nummer 2,   the forerunner of the cabinets with glass doors that came to be used to display objects
                          zomer 2002, pp. 24–27; Sargent, 2012, p. 11; and Van
 Diameter: 10.6cm; height: 5.3cm  Campen, 2014, pp. 191 and 194.
 Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden    458   The inventory is published in Th. H. Lunsingh   throughout Europe at the end of the seventeenth century.  The English traveller
                                                                                                               460
 (inv. no. GMP 1929/32)   Scheurleer, C. W. Fock and A. J. van Dissel,  Het   Peter Mundy, who visited Amsterdam in 1640 observed in his diary that the people
                          Rapenburg; geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht,
                          Leiden, 1986–1992, Part IIIa, pp. 397–403. Cited in   are ‘… All in general striving to adorne their houses, especially the outer or street
                          Van Campen, 2014, p. 191.
 Next pages 200–201     459   Published in Ibid., pp. 192–193, fig. 2.  roome, with costly peeces, …. Alsoe their other Furniture and Ornaments off their
 Fig. 3.2.1.24  Merry Company   460   For a brief discussion on the use of such cabinets
 Oil on panel, 47.1cm x 63.2cm  in Spain, see Krahe, 2014, Vol. I, pp. 156–157, fig. 45.  dwellings very Costly and Curious, Full of pleasure and home contentment, as Ritche
 Isack Elyas, dated 1629  461   Richard Carnac Temple (ed.),  The Travels of Peter   Cupboards, Cabinetts, etts., Imagery, porcelaine, Costly Fine cages with birds, etts.; all
 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam   Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608–1667, Vol. IV, Travels   these commonly in any house off indifferent quality’. 461
 (museum no. SK-A-1754)   in Europe, 1639–1647, Cambridge, 1925, pp. 70–71.



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