The four seasons of miniature pipes? New treasures and a failure.

Before I start I would like to thank you all for your nice comments on my last post. And I would like to say welcome to Kathrene McKinnel and Rob Hawkins for becoming my newest followers. Thank you for your interest in my project.

Miniature clay pipes from Gouda. The white stem will have to be glued back together. 

First the new treasures.
When I looked through the catalogue of our local auction house I noticed a lot with antique miniature clay pipes from te city of Gouda and four small figurines. On the day of the auction I was fortunate to acquire the lot.

These pipes have broken stems. The real pipes also boke easily. The green jar
is made by Elisabeth Causeret and perfect as a tobacco jar. The tobacco 
consists of broken tea leaves. :D

Although the pipes are actualy a bit too big, the scale is 1:10 instead of 1:12, this type of pipe was common from the 16th right into the 19th century and are perfect for my Huis ter Swinnendael. The two long pipes will end up in his lordships library. The small pipes will end up in de Stewards office located in the cellar.

The four seasons: Winter next to an altar with a bowl with fire

The second part of the auction lot are this group of four figurines made of pijpaarde (pipe clay). They are made in the late nineteenth century and represent the our seasons. In Gouda the pipe makers also made figurines and decorative objects to sell as affordable decoratons for those who could not afford expensive decorations.

The four seasons: Spring with a garland of flowers

My plan is to use Autumn and Winter as statues in de picture gallery. These men are clothed in a classical manner and look like a Roman priest with an altar and a Bachus with a broken arm. They look like marble statues that Carel polander could have brought back on his Grand Tour.

The four seasons: Summer, standing next to a bushel of corn.

It really is a shame that the two ladies are dressed like 19th century ballerina's. They are pretty but unfortunately don't fit in the style of the house. I will keep them though, but not in the house. Perhaps they will make a nice gift?

Autumn, with an arm missing, but with a wreath of vines and grapes

And now the failure.

The other news is that I have been sawing wood to make the walls floor and ceiling of my first room, The kookkeuken (cooking kitchen). Unfortunately I do not own a sawtable and have to do it by hand. The way that I have designed it, with the rooms sliding in and out of the house like drawers, accurate and precise sawing is  paramount.

The first floor. It all looks so simple. :-)

The result of my hard labour was deplorable. A waste of time, energy and material. Well most material can be reused for something else but thats all I'm afraid. The lines weren't straight enough or one or two milimeters off, et cetera. very disapointing.

The second floor. 

What to do? Unortunately I have no budget for a good sawtable at the moment. And going on by hand for these large components that need to fit precisely, is no option. Neither is waiting for my monthly hobby budget to grow to the required amount. The (short term because I still want/need a sawtable) answer is to have the walls lasercut. I intended for the windows to have them cut by laser anyway, so why not the walls with all the necessary holes as well?

Two complete windows and some of their components.

So after drawing and sketching on paper, building a model out of card board, I am now redrawing everything with a designprogram for architects. First the floorplan than every component (walls etc.) for each room. The different walls and components are grouped together on a template and will be sent to the lasercut company for cutting. Lets see if this works!

That's it for now. Enjoy you'r own projects and till the next time!

Huibrecht