After its restoration, Groeneveld Castle was also partly refurnished, and this included the linen room. Sanny provided over 700 pieces of linen damask on long-term loan: hundreds of household cloths, dozens of damask tablecloths, over 100 napkins, about 30 bedsheets and 60 pillowcases. The linen damask was placed in neat piles in the linen cabinet, […]
Class distinctions. Dutch painting in the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA. Ronni Baer put together a wonderful exhibition with 75 first-class pieces by 17th-century Dutch artists. Vermeer, Rembrandt, Pieter de Hoogh and many other artists give us a glimpse of the different groups in society in the new Dutch Republic. Three table settings were displayed in cabinets to bring […]
Dutch dining: 400 years of dining culture
Ten beautifully decorated tables told the story of Dutch dining culture. This is how prominent families and institutions impressed their guests: with beautiful damask-covered tables, delicious food, shining silver, fine glasses, porcelain dinner crockery and artfully folded napkins. The servants who attended at table wore livery that further enhanced the status of the household. Curator […]
DINNER IS SERVED, townspeople and country folk, servants and masters!
In 2016, there was more linen damask on display in the beautiful rural museum in Bleskensgraaf than in all the other major Dutch museums put together. There were laid tables representing every layer of society: from a cotton cloth to white Sunday-best damask tablecloths, including simple tablecloths with a block design for the servants, who […]
That’s how it’s done (not!): the baroness’s worn linen
The shabby but authentic linen weaver’s house provided the perfect setting for the baroness’s patched-up linen. In October 1945, the Swiss nurse Odette Graber married Jaap, Baron Schimmelpenninck van der Oije. Of course, there were shortages of all kinds of things in the Netherlands so soon after the war, so Odette was given linen from […]