USA > New York > New York City > Dutch New York (early history of the Dutch in New York) > Part 9
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Another rich Englishman, John. Winder, who died
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twenty years before Mr. Crundall, had, on the other hand, no bed in his hall, which contained four Spanish tables, twelve Turkey chairs, a leather chair, one King's arms, two Turkey-work carpets, two brass screens, two leather Bristol carpets, two looking-glasses, a screen, two stands, a pair of andirons with brass heads, a pair of bellows, a framed table, two trunks, and two earthen pots.
Mr. William Cox owned about £2000 in 1689. His house was completely furnished. He had two bed- steads, twenty-four Russia leather chairs, a black wal- nut chest, a desk and box, three looking-glasses (one large), three cedar tables (two with a " carpet "), a " dansick table," another table and carpet, a Turkey carpet, a " pendula clock," an " old screene," a chest- of-drawers and frame, a side-table and drawer, a silver frame looking-glass, a glass case, rugs, etc., six rock- ing-chairs, a chimney clock, a fine hammock, a great copper (65 pounds). Tall clocks as well as chimney and wall clocks were also used. One brought from Holland in the Seventeenth Century by the Van Cort- landts appears in this book.
In the Widow Cox's Chamber were stored one hun- dred and fourteen ounces of silver plate, including a silver tankard, cup, plate, sugar box, and spoon, salt- cellar, two porringers, tumbler, and twelve spoons. This room was luxuriously furnished, for it contained a bed with bedding and appurtenances, serge curtains and valance with silk fringe, a chest-of-drawers and frame, side table and drawers, a large looking-glass, a silver looking-glass, a dressing-box, a glass case, and twelve Turkey-work chairs.
Some of these articles doubtless appeared again in the inventory of Mr. Cox's widow Sarah, who married John Ort, and took for her third husband Captain Kidd,
DUTCH CHINA CABINET AND PORCELAIN OWNED BY MR. FRANS MIDDELKOOP, NEW YORK
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the noted pirate. In 1692 her plate and furniture were valued at £255 14s. od. Her possessions consisted of furniture, linen, pewter, glass, and earthenware. She had no less than fifty-four chairs, eighteen of which were " Turkey-work," and owned a Turkey- work carpet, four looking-glasses, four bedsteads, four tables, four other carpets, dressing-boxes, screens, stands, desks, linen, a coat-of-arms, three chafing- dishes, pewter, tin, four handsome brass candlesticks, hearth-furniture, rugs, and a fine clock. She also had five leather fire buckets.
In Nathaniel Tompson Barrow's Best Chamber, 1688, he had a bedstead with " sacking bottom," bolster, feather bed, pillows, blankets, and curtains and valance (£Io). A round table, a chest-of-drawers, a close table, a small dressing-glass, and six chairs come to £2 13s. od. In the " Next Chamber " we find a bed- stead, two feather beds, bolsters, pillows, rugs, quilts, etc., a small chest-of-drawers, two trunks, a looking- glass, and four chairs (£7 15s. od.), household linen (£13 8s. 6d.), and a suit of white curtains.
Nathaniel Sylvester, 1680, worth £322 16s. od., is an- other good type. He has a "Turkey-wrought couch " and twelve chairs, six green chairs, ten leather chairs, a " Turkey-work carpet," a clock, four tables, two great chests, two great trunks, two cupboards with drawers, a clock, ten feather beds and furniture, and four handsome looking-glasses, besides beds, table- linen, etc.
The handsomest piece of furniture Mr. Francoys Rombouts owned was a " Holland Cubbert furnished with earthenware and porcelain" (£15). He also had a " cubbert and earthenware pots and cups," two other " cubberts," and a kitchen " cubbert." The beds in his house were: one bedstead and furniture (£12) ; an-
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other bedstead (£10), which was draped with white curtain and valance; another (£7), hung with blue curtains; and a little bedstead, a pair of curtains for a close bedstead, a rug and blanket (£3). Of looking- glasses he owned four; of tables he had five, including a little table and cloth, and one oval; and he also pos- sessed a press, a dressing-basket, a desk, a cradle, a chest-of-drawers, a wooden press, several trunks and chests, a house screen, a fire screen, a hat-press, two clocks, one a " chimney clock," clothes in a linen case and an old chest and trunk (£16 16s. od.) ; two chim- ney cloths with fringe and lace; seven white calico curtains and two mats; one large chair (£6 2s. od.), seven matted chairs, fourteen chairs, and eight cush- ions (£5 Ios. od.), four chairs and cushions, four leather chairs (£I 5s. od.), two chairs and cush- ions, eight other chairs, four chair cushions, fifteen pictures, a "perriwig-head," a "hat pin," " earthen jugs and hanging-board" (£2), a lantern, and two leather pails, iron backs for the hearths, five baskets, three hampers, one "capstick," one Dutch Bible, one psalm book, one "history book," and a "parcel of books." He owned silver plate worth £20 17s. od., and a great deal of pewter, brass, iron, hearth-furniture, cutlery, and earthenware; innumerable brushes, and much fine household linen.
Some of his cooking and cleaning utensils were ex- pensive; for instance, a wooden dish, a brush, a still and churn, are valued at £5 Ios. od. Among the kitchen articles we find two gridirons, one dripping- pan, one candle-box, " two whetting boards for knives," three brooms, one brush, four tubs, one butter firkin, two rolling boards for linen, one glass spout, thirteen wooden Pools for lining [linen] and one board." He also had two nets and about one hundred old bags and
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odd things. Mr. Rombouts's two dwellings were ap- praised at £600.
Anthony De Milt, who died in 1693, worth £176 7s. 101/2d., and who was Schout in 1672, had, at the time of his death, two great chairs, fourteen chairs, ten pictures (£2 Ios. od.), one looking-glass, silver plate, linen, earthenware, one desk, two tables, one oak case, six stoves, one trunk, two chests, two bankes (benches), a wooden box, two pails, two great wooden boxes, one small ditto, one spit-box (worth 3 pence), and three Bermuda baskets.
CHAPTER V
PICTURES, SILVER, CHINA, GLASS, AND CURIOS
A NY one who studies the Little Masters cannot fail to be impressed with the great number of paintings of interiors of the ordinary homes of the period; and many works of Jan Steen, Gerard Dou, Teniers, Pieter de Hooch, Van Mieris, Metsu, Ter Borch, S. van Hoogstraaten, and others give us an exact impression of the rooms and houses of the Seventeenth Century. From Hoogstraaten and Pieter de Hooch particularly we learn the interior construc- tion, - how the stairs led to the floors above; how the rooms led from one to another; how the beds were built in the panels and wainscoting; how the windows and doors opened upon courtyards, streets, and back gardens; how the halls were arranged, and how the chimney-pieces were built ; - while other masters show us how the furniture was disposed, and how rich were the carvings and the porcelains, and how thick and brightly hued the " table carpets " and hangings. In- numerable would be the hints given to us by De Heem, Van Huysam, Mignon, Van Aelst, Rachel Ruysch, Snyders, and others of the rich vases of china and glass owned by the Dutch of three centuries past, even if the museums and private collections were not full of splendid examples of the potter's and glass-maker's arts. Priceless silver beakers, loving-cups, and great tankards, too, appear in many convivial scenes and re- unions of gay arquebusiers, and show us what the
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silversmith could do. The Dutch painters, as every one knows, excelled in representing all the familiar objects of daily life; but they painted such things not merely for their own pleasure, - there was a great demand for exact representation of persons amid familiar scenes. The Guilds of Surgeons and mem- bers of Saint Andrew's, Saint George's, and other shooting-societies liked to be represented at their ban- quets, glasses in hand, attacking game pasties, munch- ing pork chops, and toasting each other in slim-necked beakers half full of liquid amber or topaz wine, while jokes and laughter went the rounds. Celebrated and mediocre masters and brilliant painters, who had at that time little reputation, were called upon - in a day when photography was unknown - to paint the homes of the well-to-do, in exactly the same spirit that the latter had dolls' houses made in miniature.
The stranger who visited the Dutch cities was per- fectly amazed at the "many interiors and landscapes which were exhibited in the booths at the fairs and under the verandahs in front of the houses of the painters, and often bought them for a small sum to sell them in his own country at a considerable price."
Many of the Dutch artists so highly esteemed to-day were, when living, unappreciated and poor. The great Ruisdael died in an almshouse; his pupil, the now famous Hobbema, discouraged, ceased to work, and was buried at the expense of the parish. Aert van der Neer, painter of landscapes by moonlight and winter scenes of charm, died in a garret; the wife of Adriaen van de Velde had to carry on a hosier's busi- ness in order to support him and her family; and Jan Steen probably made more money out of his tavern than he did from his painting.
It would, then, not be extraordinary if many pic-
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tures of a high order of merit were brought across the Atlantic by the Dutch sea-captains and if New Am- sterdam were quite in touch with the art productions of the day. When we critically examine Dr. De Lange's, Mrs. Van Varick's, and Mrs. Cappoens's col- lections with their Evenings, Countreys, Zea, Banquet, Bunch of Grapes with a Pomegranate, Break of Day, Apricots, Winter, Flower Pot, Country People Frolic (Kermess), Plucked Cock Torn, Abraham and Hagar, Picture of Roots, Fruit, Burd Cage and Purse, a Rum- mer, Shippes, Landskip ye City of Amsterdam, and Rosen, it is certainly not fanciful to attribute them to the now famous landscape, genre, and still-life masters of the day. If so many pictures passed from Holland to England, why should not a certain number cross from the parent Amsterdam to the child New Amster- dam? Some were purchased and some were sent as presents; but, undoubtedly, many came. Not only pictures but tapestries, coats-of-arms, and maps adorned the homes of this city. Many of the merchants and officials of New Amsterdam crossed the water more than once, and while in their old home had their pic- tures painted by artists of the day. Fortunately, one of the most important portraits of a civic notability is still in existence (see Frontispiece). The tremen- dous supply kept down the prices, and it is no wonder that the strangers were astonished at the pictures that they saw with other ornaments in the homes of the Netherlands. Brickman says:
Their interior decorations are far more costly than our own (English) not only in hangings and ornaments, but in pictures which are found even in the poorer houses. No farmer or even common laborer is found, that has not some kind of interior ornaments of all kinds, so that if all were put together it often would fill a booth at the fair.
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De Parival remarked :
The furniture of the principal burghers, besides the gold and silver ware, are tapestries, costly paintings of the best and most celebrated masters of the country, for which no money is saved, but rather eked out in econo- mizing in living, beautifully carved woodwork, such as tables, treasure-chests, pewter, brass and earthenware, porcelains, etc.
The finest collection in New Amsterdam appears to have been that of Dr. De Lange. He had no less than sixty-one pictures, many of which are described as " large." The inventory distinctly mentions the rooms in which they were hung. Entering the Side Chamber, we find one picture, an Evening; a small Zea; four pictures, Countries; and five East India pictures with red lists ( frames). We may note that a large looking- glass with gold frame also took up some of the wall space. In the Fore Room he had " A great Picture, being a Banquet with a black list; one ditto, something smaller; one Bunch of Grapes with a Pomegranate; one Picture with Apricokes; one Picture, a small Coun- trey; one Break of Day; one small Picture, Winter; one small Picture, a Cobler; one Portraturing of my Lord Speelman; and one board with a black list wherein the coat-of-arms of Mr. De Lange." This was appraised at nearly twice the value of a great Banquet. The Great Chamber contained one great picture, Banquetts; one ditto; one small ditto; one Picture Abraham and Hagar; four small Countreys; two small Countreys; one Flower Pot; one smaller ditto; one Country People Frolic; one Sea-Strand; one Portraiture; one Plucked Cock Torn; two small Countreys; one Flower Pot, small, without a list; one " small print broken," and " thirteen East India prints
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past upon paper." In the Cellar were a portrait of Mr. De Lange, portraits of two men, and four Countreys without lists, unframed.
Mrs. Margarita Van Varick had one large picture of Images, Sheep and Shippes; one Picture of the Apostle; one Picture of Fruit; one Picture of Battell; one Picture of Landskip; one Picture of large Flower Pot; one Picture with a Rummer; one Burd Cage and Purse, etc .; one large Horse Battell; one Picture of Roots. She also had two Pictures of Shippes in black ebony frames, and two similar ones in black frames also, two small painted pictures in black frames, and two maps in black frames. Moreover, there were eight prints in black frames and four in " guilded frames "; and no less than fourteen "East India Pictures," large and small, framed, some of which were framed in black and some in gilt frames.
Cornelis Steenwyck had fourteen in the Great Cham- ber, six in the Chamber above the Kitchen, eleven in the Fore Room, and eight in the Withdrawing Room.
Cristina Cappoens, 1687, also had two small pic- tures, one great one with "a broken list," four small pictures, two small pictures, three small gilded pictures, and four that are described sufficiently to suggest per- haps a De Heem or Rachel Ruysch, a Van de Velde, and a Berck-Heyde or a Bakhuysen. These are "two Rosen pictures," one "a ship," and one "of ye city of Amsterdam."
Two years later, in 1689, John Van Zee had four pictures : one was Scipio Africanus, and another Julius Cæsar. These were probably a pair painted by the same artist. The names of the other two are not men- tioned. Dirck Benson had "four pictures of four quarters of the World."
Other instances are: Dominie Nicholas Van Rensse-
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laer, of Albany, had thirteen pictures - The King's Arms, five small printed pictures, and an " almanach " worth eighty beavers; Cornelis Jacobson had one pic- ture in 1680; Cornelis Dericksen, seven pictures (£2) in 1681; Asser Levy had nine pictures in 1682; Cornelis Van Dyck, three pictures in his Fore Room in 1686; and Jacob Abraham Sanford, four pictures in 1688, and Thomas Davids, ten. The widow of Nicholas Bur- dene had two pictures in 1690; Philip Smith, a chart and a picture in 1692, in which year Francoys Rom- bouts had fifteen pictures. Anthony de Milt had ten in 1693; and Annitie Van Bommel, two in 1694.
One constantly comes across the mention of maps, prints, and almanacs, which probably hung upon the walls also; and " thirty pictures of King William and Mary," in Lawrence Deldyke's shop in 1692, show that the Dutch rulers of England were popular in New Amsterdam. Dr. De Lange's East India prints pasted on paper were undoubtedly valuable Eastern pictures. A flower-piece of the period, by Jan van Huysum, such as was owned by the rich New Amsterdam collectors, faces page 196. The tulip is noticeably important.
The silver of the period was massive and heavy. Great tankards and beakers with lids, such as face page 272, great porringers, caudle-cups, bowls, dram-cups, tumblers, and cups were marked with the family coat- of-arms, or the name, initials, or monogram of the owner, and bequeathed from generation to generation. Apostle-spoons, too, were much in favor and highly valued, and special spoons for the sugar-box, pap-bowl, mustard-pot, etc., were also known (see facing page 262). Forks were gradually coming into general use, and so were the pepper-box, saltcellars, spice-boxes, and other delicate articles for table use. Special presents
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were given to brides, and the christening gifts were also numerous, including spoons, bowls, cups, and rattles with silver bells. Spoons were sometimes pre- sented for souvenirs at funerals. Silver toys of all kinds were also highly valued, and at this period the silversmith was able to reproduce in miniature every known article, from a coach and six horses to a chair of the period (see opposite). The cabinets of the rich were filled with these little articles. Mrs. Van Varick, who had a great many of these beauti- ful and costly miniature toys (see page 119), owned a very remarkable collection of silver. Much of it was evidently of beautiful workmanship and from the East. Her treasures included one silver spice-box, one silver egg-dish, one small silver knife and fork, one sil- ver knife, three silver wrought East India boxes, one silver tumbler, one silver knife, "one silver fork, studded handle," one silver wrought East India trunk, one silver saltcellar, one silver wrought East India box, two silver-headed canes, one china cup bound with silver, two scissors tipped with silver, one hundred and eighty-five ounces silver (£69 7s. 6d.). She also had three silver wrought East India " cupps," one silver wrought East India dish, one small ebony trunk with silver handles, a silver thimble, silver medals, and a great variety of current coins of foreign mintage and Oriental curios.
Asser Levy also had an unusual collection of silver in 1682. Among his fine articles we may note twenty- two silver spoons, one silver fork, three silver goblets, one silver tankard, one silver mustard-pot, one silver cup with two ears, four small silver cups, one small silver goblet, two silver saltcellars, two silver cups, two silver saucers, one silver spice-box, one silver tumbler, one silver bell, and " one Cornelia tree cup
MINIATURE SILVER ARTICLES AND SILVER TOYS RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM
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and two dishes with silver." William Pleay had, in 1690, a silver " jocolato pot."
Another fine collection was that of Peter Jacob Marius, who died in 1702. Among other things he had one silver tankard, two large and one small silver saltcellar, one large and one small silver beaker, two large and one small mustard "pott " and spoons, twenty-five large and two small sweetmeat spoons, four silver tumblers, seven large and small cups with two ears, one silver old-fashioned server, one silver mug and cover, one " babyes silver chaffendish " and cradle, one silver fork and cup, with a parcel of but- tons and other broken silver (218 ounces). He also owned two silver-handled knives and a pair of silver- handled " sizers."
Charles Morgan, of Gravesend, Long Island, had one " sylver dram cup " in 1668; and in the same year Thomas Exton left to Mrs. Abigail Nicholls "my silver boat and a silver meat fork and a silver spoon." John Winder owned four hundred and forty-seven ounces of plate in 1675 (fIII 15s. od.) ; George Cooke had £40 of silver plate, including an inkhorn and fork; in 1680 Cornelis Jacobson had "a silver cup and two hooks for a cloth "; and in 1681 Cornelis Derickson, fourteen spoons, the handle of a spoon, the handle of a fork, two little spoons, a dram cup and a " currell " (26 ounces), all amounting to £7 16s. od. The same year, Cornelis Steenwyck had seven hundred and twenty-three ounces of silver plate worth £216 18s. od. and seven ounces worth £2 2s. od. In 1689 William Cox had one hundred and fourteen ounces of silver plate and a " case of silver hafted knives "; John Van Zee possessed plate valued at £9 IIs. od .; Anthony de Milt also possessed a little silver. Madame Blanche Sauzeau, widow of Jaques Dubois, had six silver
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spoons, six forks, and six small spoons in 1690; and two years later Philip Smith had one hundred and fourteen ounces of silver plate, worth £12 2s. 3d. Francoys Rombouts had £20 17s. od .; and Sarah Ort, soon to be Mrs. Kidd, one hundred and four ounces of silver, worth £101 9s. od., including a tankard, cup, plate, sugar-box and spoon, saltcellar, two porringers, a tumbler, and twelve spoons. Margaret Duncan, 1702, owned £98 worth of silver, including a porringer worth fio 19s. 9d. and six silver spoons; Francis Hulin in the same year had a dozen silver spoons and a dozen silver forks, valued at £14 8s. od .; Abraham Delanoy, 1702, nine silver spoons, worth £5 6s. od. John Haines, 1689, had sixteen silver spoons worth £9 12s. od. Colonel William Smith, of the manor of St. George, Suffolk County, 1704, owned silver plate to the value of £150; and Cristina Cappoens, 1693, had three silver beakers, two silver cups, one having a silver cover, a silver pepper-box, a silver mustard-pot, a silver saltcellar, and nine silver spoons. In 1700, Cornelis Van Dyck had four silver "tummelers."
Tankards and beakers were highly valued and fre- quently bequeathed to the eldest or favorite son and grandson. Thus we find Philip Udall, of Flushing, in 1711 bequeathing a silver " Beeker," about a pound weight, to his son, Joseph, " for the use of my grand- son Philip Udall, after the death of my son, Joseph." Derick Clausen, 1686, had a silver beaker (worth £3) and a silver cup (18 shillings). Margaret Duncan, 1702, owned a tankard; Cristina Cappoens, 1693, owned two old family beakers: one, weighing twelve ounces, was worth £4 4s. od., and the other, weighing sixteen ounces and marked with the name Christina Rasselaers, was valued at £5 12s. od. John Haines, merchant, 1689, had a silver tankard worth fio.
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Four handsome pieces that belonged to Olaf Steven- son Van Cortlandt face page 112; a silver tankard that belonged to Sara de Rapelje, the first child born of Dutch parents in the colony, faces page 116, on which is also a curious drinking-cup known as the " clover-leaf."
Silver frequently excited the cupidity of servant, guest, and relative, if we may judge from the many thefts that occur in the court records. A very peculiar case appears in 1656, when the Honorable N. de Sille appears with a charge against two ladies of position, - Neeltie van Couwenhoven and her sister Mrs. Nicholaes Boot. "For that N. Boot's wife cunningly took, with the said Neeltie, a silver goblet from their father's house and refuse to restore it; whereupon they being complained of, plaintiff caused the goblet to be brought and laid before the Court, maintaining that it is a species of theft or violence." The court ordered that the goblet be delivered to Couwenhoven, which was done in court.
Silver was always a great temptation to the thief. Many instances came into the court, among which was the case of Marten Van Weert, who was a notorious thief who had visited the homes of some of the most important burghers of New Amsterdam. In some way he made off with half a dozen spoons at a wedding at the house of Cristina Cappoens. Marten van Weert was accused by the officer Pieter Tonneman " for his grave and shameful act of theft committed at various times and divers places according to his own voluntary confession and acknowledgment without torture or force; first having stolen seven or eight years ago a quantity of zeewan from the house of Pieter Kock dec'd; having stolen from Cornelis Steenwyck's house at divers times a quantity of otters and beavers to-
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gether with some pieces of manufactured or Haarlem stuffs and a piece of fine napped cloth, also a piece of fine linen; having lately stolen from Cristyntje Cap- poens's house at the feast or celebration of the marriage of Lauwerens Van der Spygel and Sara Webbers, to which wedding he was invited, half a dozen silver spoons." It was considered important to make him an example to others; and Marten van Waart was condemned to be "severely scourged with rods in a closed chamber, banished ten years out of this jurisdiction and further in the costs and mises of justice." Owing to his youth, the first punishment was later remitted.
In rich houses in Holland pewter was generally used in the place of silver tableware. The silver, when families were so fortunate as to own it, was kept for ornament and for occasions of ceremony. The pewter, of good design and often engraved with the family coat-of-arms, shone as brightly as the silver itself, and was kept in a special pewter cupboard (or tinkasten) in the dresser, or in rows in the wooden racks on the wall.
Pewter was universally possessed in the New Netherlands. Annitie van Bommel, 1694, had a great amount, including sixteen pewter platters, seven plates, sixteen porringers, ten pewter spoons; Cristina Cap- poens, 1687, four pewter dishes, eight pewter plates, six pewter cans, and seven funnels, ten pewter dishes, two small pewter dishes, one pewter beaker, three pewter cans, and one " pewter cop "; Cornelis Jacobson, 1680, eight pewter dishes (35 pounds), twenty-four pewter trenchers, two small dishes, a pepper-box, and many other dishes and spoons; George Masters, 1686, a pewter tankard and five old porringers, eleven pewter plates, three small and three larger deep pewter dishes,
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