Within this same context, interest in silver miniatures also emerged. Wealthy women, particularly in Amsterdam, furnished special cabinets as doll’s houses: scaled-down versions of their own canal houses, fitted with miniature silver household objects. These so-called pronckpoppenhuizen were not children’s toys but formed part of the owner’s art collection. Like cabinets of curiosities, they were intended to display taste, distinction and refinement.

A Craze

The demand for silver miniatures was already considerable in the second half of the seventeenth century but reached its peak in Amsterdam during the first half of the eighteenth century. Production expanded to such an extent that it can rightly be described as a veritable craze.

The Rembrandt House in Miniature

The house shown here is a miniature version of the Amsterdam residence in which Rembrandt van Rijn lived and worked for nearly twenty years. It closely follows the original building: façade, roof and interior are all rendered in meticulous detail.
Built to a scale of 1:12 it measures 2.7 metres in height. Construction of the house began in 2014 and was carried out by a team of five specialised craftsmen. Following its completion, the miniature became part of the collection of Museum Het Rembrandthuis in 2018, before later joining our collection. It is a contemporary object wholly devoted to the world of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

One Hundred Silver Miniatures

The eight rooms of the miniature Rembrandt House are furnished with a total of one hundred silver miniatures. Thirty-three date from the seventeenth century and sixty-seven from the eighteenth century. Almost all were made in Amsterdam, as is the case for the vast majority of surviving antique silver miniatures. Demand there was so great that silversmiths specialised in producing so-called poppegoet for generations. Three Amsterdam families dominated the market: Van Geffen, Van Strant and Somerwil.
Silver miniatures were also produced outside Amsterdam, though on a much smaller scale. In economically important cities such as Haarlem, Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Middelburg, Amsterdam fashions were followed. Only a few miniatures are known from Friesland and Groningen.

Reception and Representation

The principal rooms are located on the bel-etage. Entered via the stoop, the reception hall features a black-and-white chequered marble floor. Delftware tiles line the skirting boards, each depicting a children’s game. The linen cupboard contains fine and costly textiles, while a double eight-arm silver chandelier hangs from the beamed ceiling.
Beneath the chandelier stands a table with a folding top. Upon it stands a rare and exceptionally finely worked coffee urn with three taps, a miniature that is only occasionally encountered. This example is further distinguished by the fact that it was made in Harlingen, a town from which only a handful of antique silver miniatures are known. The chest, wine jug and wall sconce in this room all date from the seventeenth century.

The Sael

Adjacent to the reception hall lies the Sael, another room of representational importance. The marble fireplace with columns forms a strong visual focal point, as does the large box bed set against the back wall. In the hearth stand extremely rare silver firedogs, accompanied by an antique silver bellows and fireplace tools.
The box bed incorporates several storage compartments for items such as a chamber pot, tobacco jar, spittoon and brazier. On the dressing table stand a toilet mirror and a pin cushion; beside the Bible lies a pair of snuffers. The ewer-and-basin set, the warming pan and the candlesticks on the mantelpiece are all seventeenth-century miniatures.

Dining Room

On the floor above is the dining room, where the table is set for six. Between the candlesticks stands a jardinière on its stand. Also noteworthy are the fire guard before the hearth and the finely executed tea stove. The interior of the fireplace is lined with Delftware tiles. This is the second of four fireplaces in the house, indicating that Rembrandt was wealthy enough to heat several rooms. This allowed the house to be used more intensively during the winter. In many homes, families gathered around a single fireplace.
A spoon rack with six spoons and a wall sconce hang on the wall.

Naturalia

In the adjoining cabinet, Rembrandt assembled his naturalia and other objects that provided inspiration. In the foreground stands a seventeenth-century pricket candlestick made in Utrecht. The cabinet is filled with document rolls, with a large dish placed on top. Pigments could be ground and mixed in the mortar.

Bedroom

The centrepiece of the bedroom is the rare seventeenth-century four-poster bed. Only the very wealthiest, following the example of Louis XIV, could afford such a bed. Most people slept in box beds, as can also be seen in the kitchen of this house. Four-poster beds are extremely rare among silver miniatures. On the chest against the wall stands a shaving bowl next to a candlestick. Water could be tapped from the lavabo on stand.

Linen Room

Housekeeping was extraordinarily labour-intensive. Everything had to be done by hand. The attic floors of the seventeenth-century merchants’ houses along Amsterdam’s canals were working spaces where many of the jobs involved in running the house were done. There were linen rooms, larders and peat stores. The linen room was used for the care of household linen. Washing and bleaching generally took place outside the home. Laundry was transported in large baskets, with valuable linen sent in lockable containers. One such basket, woven entirely from silver wire in the seventeenth century, stands to the left in this room. The final processing of clean laundry took place here. On the wall shelf are flat irons; the room also contains a linen press, a spinning wheel, a wash tub, a diaper basket and a linen basket.

Etching Room

In the basement is the etching room, where Rembrandt produced his prints. A large etching press stands on the green-glazed tiled floor. A copper etching plate lies on the workbench, while prints hang drying along the back wall. In the foreground stands a rare knaap, an adjustable candlestick. The contents of the two storage barrels could be weighed on the scales.

Kitchen

The kitchen formed the heart of the household: a fire burned continuously, meals were prepared and eaten here, and the maid slept in a box bed, while a large cooking pot stood permanently on the fire to provide hot water. On the work surface stands a tourtepan, used for baking pies and tarts. Also present are a sand, soap and soda container, a water bucket with a well hook, and a rare miniature water spout for window-cleaning. The spout was placed in a large bucket, allowing water to be pumped upwards and sprayed onto the upper floor windows from the pavement below for window cleaning. A mouse or rat trap recalls the everyday realities of pest control. On the wall hangs a seventeenth-century spoon rack with six small spoons.

The silver miniatures are not only beautifully crafted and visual appealing; the house as a whole also offers valuable insight into miniature silver, doll’s houses, and, of course Rembrandt’s own home.