Visiting grand houses: The other Belle

Hello my Friends,

A little while ago I visited this castle. As you may know I like to visit these houses from time to time. Not only to enjoy the preservd beauty of bygone ages, but also to get inspired for the miniature rooms of huis ter Swinnedael

One of the better known inhabitants was Belle van Zuylen. Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken (Belle van Zuylen’s official name) was born at Slot Zuylen castle, near Utrecht, in 1740. She died in Colombier, near Neuchâtel in Switzerland, in 1805. Her aristocratic family belonged at the time to the most prestigious and influential elite in the Dutch Republic. Yet I should not try to present her as a truly Dutch author. She wrote in French, German and English but hardly in Dutch.

She is a woman for which I have had great respect since first read her (romanticised) biography written by Hella S. Haasse. When I was 14. I say romanticised but the book is based on a lot of research including the hundreds of letters written by Belle and her contempories. Hella is an author famous for ger historic novels. Often about interesting women in history. I have read and enjoyed most of them. After this biography I have read several of Belle's books and enjoyed them. She mocked several of the preconceptions of her age with a sharp eye and a witty pen. And Annabelle (Belle) Zonneschut is loosely based on this other Belle.

Her statement 'I have no talent for subservience' is typical of the liberal Dutch writer, who, after an excellent upbringing, came into contact with many great minds of her time. She wrote novels, pamphlets, plays and libretti for operas, but she owes her reputation mainly to her letters. Belle van Zuylen has become known as an independent, emancipated woman of the Enlightenment.

Two pictures up you see the 'gobelin room' where the owners of the castle had their formal entertainments. The tapisserie covering the walls show an idealised landscape that is original to the room since the mid 17th century. The biggest change here has been the addition of the wainscotting in the 18th century. 

The picture directly above shows the diningroom with portraits of succeeding generations of the  Van Tuyll van Serooskerken family. Unfortunately I could not avoid the glare of the chandelier in the portraits, but You get the general idea. 

I have noticed that in the Netherlands,a1 museums and grand houses are very happy to display their historic dollshouses dollshouses if they have one. This one is called Kindervreugd which translates as "Children's Pleasure." Quite an apt name I think. 

You can not compare this house to the dollshouse cabinets from the 17th and 18th century. Those are collectors pieces for adults and this is a toy house for children. Nevertheless it has several interesting features and miniatures.

The castles kitchen probably does not differ too much from the time that Belle lived her in her youth. Although it is not unlikely that she has ever set a foot in this room at all. With the dressingroom and wigroom nearing completion for Huis ter Swinnendael, I am now making sketches of the kitchen layout. A kitchen such as this provides me with a lot of ideas. I espescialy like the 3 sections within the huge hearth (with it's own window even!) A bread oven on the left. An open fire for roasting and boiling big pots in the center and a tiled stove on the right for dishes that are more delicate or require more controlled temperatures. Such a division in threes will come back into the kitchen of the house of my Belle Zonneschut. 

Another room I liked was this study. having a built in China cabinet in a study is quite odd. The reason for this is that this room was most probably a winter diningroom. It is comparably a small room in the south facing corner of the castle. Therefore this room was easier to heat with this fireplace than the larger diningroom we saw before while it profited of the winters sun from dawn til dusk. It is however a guess on my part because I could not find information about it. Love the built in cabinet though!

The pictures above and below are of a suite of two smaller rooms that were used bij Belle. The historic wallpaper is restored and the period furniture gives it the feel of how this room may have been furnished in her day. I forgot to take an overview picture of the entire room, just one of the daybed with a canopy over it. 

The smaller room, which is a cabinet really, is said to be used by her for writing her letters and other work when in residence. Apart from the enchanting writing desk I also love the window treatment. Perhaps this is a good example for the curtain for  dressingroom of belle Zonneschut. let's have a little experiment for that soon!

There were more interesting rooms in the castle ofcourse. But showing them all would make this post too long and not more interesting. 

In my mind, Belle Zonneschut is not as modern as Belle van Zuylen. She is however a women who reads, writes and speaks her mind when she has formed an opinion on a subject. And Carel Polyander does not stop her, but appreciates her as she is. Both are proponents of the 18th century enlightenment, but are held back by some convictions and prejudices to be called really modern. These were however the first steps of the emancipation of women in general. 

For example, my Belle is proud of her ancestry with a family that slowly but steadily grew in wealth and climbed the social ladder, where Belle van Zuylen's first book 'Le Noble' ridiculed the aristocracy's habit of revering forefathers and taking their position in society for granted. She also uttered critique on noble emigrés from France. Who were unwilling to adapt themselves to their new situations and continued to take their privileges for granted. 

So my Belle is not as modern and outspoken as the other Belle, but she has an enquiring open mind and uses the freedom she has to pursue knowledge and paint and write and what not. Certainly not the typical 'subservient' wife which most women were brought up to be. And Carel Polyander loves her all the more for it. As he should! :-)

Well that is it for now. I hope that you have liked this post. No miniatures this time, but I'll be back soon with some more about that. 

Take care,

Huibrecht

Whom the whig fits... and other (birthday) presents!

Hello my friends,

In 1806, the year I want to set the scene for Huis ter Swinnendael, whigs has gone out of fashion. Fanciful powdered whigs had dominated fashion for the elite almost 200 years, but that fashion statement of the Ancien Regime found its end in the French revolution. That did not mean that nobody wore whigs anymore. Some, mainly elderly people, kept wearing them. Out of habit or because they were not eager to show what was left of their hair after a life time of wearing whigs.  

And naturaly the differences in fashion did not stop there as the old cartoon below shows us. And the victor dictates the tone. Note for example the calm posture and sarcastic bemusement of the revolutionary couple's reaction, versus the indignant (slight panic) reaction of the startled proponents of the old regime. The nobles that are out of touch with the new times.

"Ha! What an antiquity"                                 "Oh! The madness of this novelty..."

I imagine that for Carel Polyander and Annabelle Zonneschut, time has somewhat stood still since the Batavian revolution started in 1795. They are not blind to all the events of their time of course, but within the domain of their country estate they do not feel the need to follow fashion anymore. they have withdrawn from society more or less and can cultivate what they would like to preserve.  

And when the new fashions are promoted by the revolutionary new elite, that is all the more reason for them to not adopt them. The Zonneschuts comfortably live in their own bubble now. The servants may agree or disagree but they will wisely keep their opinions to themselves. In short, this attitude of the residents of the house I'm building, means that 'madame et monsieur' still wear whigs. 

Princess Wilhelmina, by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein in 1789, Mauritshuis museum

The picture above is of Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia. She was the wife of Prince William V who fled to England in the early days of the revolution of 1795. Her whig shows one of the latest fashions for whigs in the same year the attack on the Bastille in Paris started on the 14th of july. Therefore I wanted Annabelle to at least have one whig in this style.

I asked Annemarie Kwikkel Smith, who makes stunning period dolls, if she would be interested in making this type of whig for me. Normally she does not make loose whigs, but she loved the idea I have for my house and the family that occupies it. So she loved to accept the commission. 

 Luckily I planned on going to a miniatures fair in the last weekend of january. On that fair, Annemarie and I met eachother. It was great to see each other in real life. It makes it much more personal than just communicating by email. She had finished the whig already and gave it to me. I was amazed by the whig. So beautiful!

And what surprised me even more was that she would not let me pay for it.  She wanted to give it to me as a present! Very gratefully I thanked her and took the whig home whith me. Now it awaits the new whig stand so that I can take this beautiful hairpiece out of its box and display it in the dressing room. Since my birthday was only two weeks away I regard it also a bit like a birthday present! 

Annemarie, if you read this, thank you again for this spectacular gift! It will soon find its place in the dressingroom as soon as I have a suitable whig stand to display it.

At the same fair I also bought a few other pieces. For example this three legged Queen Anne style table made by Ericson Miniatures. And a few kits for furniture and flowers. You will see more of these when I get round to assembling them. 

Just before Christmas I received a package through the mail. It was sent by Birgit of the Biwubaeries blogspot. It contained a Biwubaeries lunchbox which I have started using for transporting my ceramic miniatures to and fro the workshops to paint them. 

Birgit knows my love for marzipan from Lübeck and had added a Niederegger marzipan loaf and Mozart kugeln. Oh pure bliss! Unfortunately these all started to disappear in the following days. Now you may think that I have a sweet tooth, but no...

After corresponding with Birgit on these mysterious dissapearances we concluded that those tasty treats were probably being absconded by the Christmas Mouse.Sthis mouse stars in a poem written by James Krüss. She reassured me that the Christmas Mouse would dissapear as soon as all the Christmas treats and decorations would be stored away. And sure enough, as soon as I had eaten the last kugeln.... I mean as soon as it had dissapeared mysteriously... The Christmas Mouse had his fill and left our house. 

I must confess I almost miss the little rascal. I hope he will return this Christmas. As long as he leaves some of the treats for me to enjoy. ;-)

Amidst all the yummy treats and lovely presents as shown on the picture, there was also a special gift made by Birgit. A stunning Faberge style egg! A luxurious miniature with microscopic mini flowers. 

Thank you again Birgit! It will get its pride of place among my other Faberge eggs. We should however give your egg a name. Since all the Russian eggs have names also. 

Can you all help me think up a good name? Suggestions are welcome.

And now it is time to look at a dead bird. No, she is not the remnant of a Christmas/birthday dinner. Nor is she a late Halloween decoration. You are looking at my birthday miniature that I have bought for myself. 

Last two years I used my birthday money on two Clocks made by Keith Bougourd from Smalltime Miniatures. I have showed you these clocks before. For this years birthday miniature I found this tiny dodo skeleton in a glass case. 

My I present to you Ophelia? As the plaque on the back tells us, she was last seen wandering the beaches of Mauritius in 1662. She, and originally the 23 sisters of Ophelia, were made by Vanalan Miniatures.

I love birds as you may know. And the unfortunate Dodo is one of those oddities that really fit into a house like Huis ter Swinnendael. I found her in a Facebook mesage from Vanessa Inwood of Vanalan Miniatures. Upon my request she told me that they had made 24 Dodo skeletons, all with different names and poses. When I had contacted her they had only four left. From the pictures she kindly send me of the four remaining dodo's I chose Ophelia.

You can imagine that this miniature will most likely end up in the library for it is a rarity you want to show off to your visitors, (for who else will have a dodo skeleton in their collection of naturalia?) but not something the lady of the house will want to find in the diningroom or the salon.  

The 'downside' of this super miniature is that the glass display case and the background make it a very Victorian ensemble. That is not the right time period for Huis ter Swinnendael. However I have some plans to alter the display case to give it more of an eighteenth century look and feel. first of all I will make a matching table or chest of drawers for Ophelia's case to stand on. And I have plans to give her a less naturalistic background. Something with the feel of an idealised garden rather than the Mauritian jungle for that 18th century vibe. When 'stylistic beauty' was just as important, if not more so, than 'natural realism'. But that will be a future project!

Well that is it for now. I hope that you like my new miniatures I certainly do! 

Huibrecht