Little Cunera on an Easter egg hunt...

Hello my friends,

Easter is almost over but I had no time to post this little post sooner than today.  I hope that all of you had a lovely Easter weekend. Wether you celebrate it around eggs and the easter bunny or the ressurection of Christ. 

I have kept you informed about the commission for the portrait of Cunera Olshoorn in threee earlier posts. Diane Meyboom has painted this excuisite miniature version of this young lady who lived 4 centuries ago. I received the portrait last month. Because the fair in Arnhem could not take place because of the last Covid restrictions, I invited Diane over for a lunch to celebrate handing over this little painting. I waited until Easter to show you the final result because she walks in a garden. 

With (quite) some imagination she is not holding a rose but an egg in her hand. She could be looking for hidden Easter eggs in the garden, like I did when I was young. 

And talking of eggs, she found one! 

I treated myself on a new miniature Fabergé egg made by Sun of Nalladris. You may recognise it. It is a miniature version of the Renaissance Egg. The real egg was made for Alexander III of Russia, who presented it to his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna in 1894.

The original surprise is lost. However Sun has added a lovely little egg with painted flowers to replace the original surprise. So now, next to the Rose trellis egg from last year I now have a second miniature egg. Perhaps next Easter I (Cunera) will collect another Easter egg from the miniature garden. Who knows!

For now I wish all of you a happy Easter.  Be well and take care. 

Huibrecht

To get ahead on heads. An old saint a ram and a horse....and an easter egg...

Hello My friends, 

No this is not meant as a scene á la the Godfather where one wakes up with a marble horsehead in ones bed. Nor is it about the remains of a butchered nativity scene. Nothing of the sort, my friends. 

Last year I bought two silver candlesticks with fishes made by Stephan Wein. (I did not by the shell tazza between them) 

He exhibits at the Kensington/Londen dollhouse festival and has a shop on Etsy. He is a goldsmith by trade who also makes miniatures. His miniatures are not run of the mill items and quite gorgeous. The prettiest of those are things you have to save up for, unfortunately, but they are worth it. And this year I allowed myself to buy one more of them. 

As you may know a private catholic chapel will be added to Huis ter Swinnendael. Every chapel needs some silverware for the altar et cetera? One or two reliquary's and saint's statues would also not go amiss. But that is easier said than done. 

I had my eye on this old carved and painted ivory head of a bearded man on a base of silver and ebony. It was described as a saint's head and looks the part. However In my eye it missed something. I asked Stephan if it was possible to add a kind of halo to it. He agreed and made sketches of two different kinds of halo's. We agreed one of them and Stephan added the halo to the statue.

The result is stunning in my opinion. I first wanted a golden halo but Stephan advised me to choose silver because that would fit better with the existing statue. And seeing the result I can say that in my opinion he is absolutely right. I love the result! But which saint does it represent? Noone knows. So I am free to choose some obscure local saint.

The Ram's head and the Roman horse's head are made by Karl Blindheim. He lives in Canada and makes beautiful miniature sculptures. Mostly of animals but also plants and human forms. 

I saw these pieces on facebook and asked if these two heads were (still) for sale. They were and the price was luckily just within budget. Apart from being two stunning pieces, the charm for me lies in the fact that these are heads of animals. Several busts of humans, made of clay, metal, plaster and resin are for sale. But animal heads are quite rare. And now I've got two of them for the small but growing collection of antiquities of sir Zonneschut. 

The last item has nothing to do with heads, but I will show it anyway.  It is a mini Fabergé egg made by Sun from Nalladris. The photo above shows the original Rose trellis egg, made by Fabergé and given by tsar Nicolas II to his wife for easter in 1907.

Wait, what? A 1907 egg in a 1805 setting? Yes you are right. You are absolutely right. It is an anachronism and does not fit in the period of Huis ter Swinnendael...

However that may be, I love these eggs. Sun has a few eggs made in miniature, and I intend to collect all the ones that I love. One per year, for easter. And although I strive to make the house and collection both fit into the style and period chosen, it is not intended as a period museum and one or two anachronisms should not spoil the overall effect. 😁 And it helps that a lot of Fabergé eggs were inspired by older styles and periods. So it fits somewhat, kinda, a bit, enough... 

Unfortunately, due to a delay in the postal service the egg did not arrive until after easter. But I am not less happy to add it to my collection.

I hope that you will like my new treasures too. 

Huibrecht