This two-horse coach is among the rarer and heaviest miniatures made in Dutch silver in the 17th and 18th centuries. The pair of cast horses and the four cast figures which are part of the design, contribute to its weight of 154 grams. This means that just over 15 guilders worth of silver was spent on this miniature at a time when the average annual income was 200 guilders. The coach has four wheels and a slightly domed roof with a baluster at each corner. Inside a couple sits facing each other. The coachman sits on the box, holding a whip in his right hand and the reins in his left. The groom stands at the rear of the coach.
The streets along the canals in Amsterdam were paved, and at the beginning of the seventeenth century a new phenomenon, the carriage, appeared, as it did in other Dutch towns and cities. Everyone who could afford to buy one did so, be it a cumbersome luxurious coach or a lighter barouche in the French fashion.
The carriage swiftly became a status symbol. Even for destinations a mere two streets away, people would have the horses harnessed to the carriage, which often took longer than the actual journey. The number of carriages grew steadily, inevitably causing traffic problems. If they wanted to pass in the narrow connecting streets between the canals the way would be completely blocked. The first one-way streets were imposed in 1615. The number of carriages continued to grow and so did the congestion. In 1634 the Amsterdam magistrates issued a proclamation banning the driving of coaches through Amsterdam on penalty of a fifty-guilder fine.Here, though, they shot themselves in the foot; it was, after all, the members of the city council, the patricians, who owned the carriages. The measure was immediately watered down, so that anyone coming from outside the city could travel by coach to their house, provided they took the shortest route. Because there were a great many shortest routes it was not long before it seemed that there had never been a ban at all.
