Room of Tradition
1800 – 1900
Why are we so fond of rituals?
Party time! Everyone likes to celebrate. Parties come in all shapes and sizes. The sit-in-a-circle birthday with coffee, cake and presents. The fancy-dress party. Or the dance party with its booming beats. There always seems to be a good excuse to throw a party.
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Room of Tradition
Why are we so fond of partying?
Party time! Everyone likes to celebrate. Parties come in all shapes and sizes. The sit-in-a-circle birthday with coffee, cake and presents. The fancy-dress party. Or the dance party with its booming beats. There always seems to be a good excuse to throw a party.
Every celebration or ritual has its own set of rules, which are there for a good reason. They often have a meaning. That also goes for the traditional Drenthe country wedding. Welcome! There is plenty of coffee and the bowl of brandied raisins is already being passed round. Don't be alarmed when you hear gunshots being fired: it means that the bridal couple is arriving. By the way, you didn't come empty-handed, did you? Do you like dancing and fancy-dress? Then come in quickly. The dance floor is waiting for you and your party clothes are ready for you to put them on, so what’s keeping you?
Sets
Audio transcriptions
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Tactile object – Brandy bowl
This is a tactile object. You may touch it.
Before you is a brandy bowl, which you may touch. The antique silver bowl resembles the one from our collection that can be seen in the display case. There, the bowl is placed next to a sugar sifter spoon, a sugar bowl, a cream bowl, a cream spoon and a bonbonniere. This oval shaped Frisian brandy bowl is 25 by 12 by 8 centimetres. It’s mounted on a foot and has two flat horizontal handles that protrude from the lip. The entire object is richly decorated with natural forms. The decorations were applied by tapping the silver from the inside using various punches and a hammer. You'll be able to feel this.
Follow the curve of the bowl on the outside and discover the many different forms. Just below the lip is a border of dots and beneath that are patterns of leaves and flowers. Below the dotted border there are what look like crowns on the front and back. Below them are two large balls. On both sides, below the handles, are large circles with a border of small dots. The bowl stands on a foot that is also richly decorated. The bottom edge is finished with circular indentations.
The bowl has triangular handles with identical decorations. Unlike the bowl itself, these were cast in a mould and not applied with punches and a hammer.
Each handle bears a depiction of two putti: naked or semi-naked infants who refer to antiquity and symbolise innocence. They lean against a kind of candlestick on which stands a vase with flowers. Their heads, with wings on either side, are at the height of the vase. The putti wear a cloth that hangs loosely over their hips.
This original antique silver brandy bowl was made by Fonger Domna, a master silversmith in Staveren. Because the hallmark in Staveren had expired, silversmiths from that city had to have their work hallmarked in the next nearest city, which was Sneek.
The bowl bears the city hallmark of Sneek, as well as the first grade hallmark of the Frisian provincial coat of arms, the double lion. By the 1740s both hallmark stamps were so worn that they were virtually illegible. This brandy bowl has the date letter L, which means it was made in 1746.
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Core object – Ear-iron
This is a core object. You can listen to information here. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to touch this object.
At festivities such as weddings, ladies in Drenthe used to show off with their typical headwear known as ear-iron. Oddly enough, the precious head ornament is largely hidden by a pleated lace cap worn over it!
The gold decorations at the temples, called ‘stiften’ in Dutch, literally stood out from under the cap and attracted attention. The stiften of this ear-iron are shaped like conical spirals and are about two centimetres long.
Some ladies had two extra gold ornaments attached to their ear-iron as an alternative to earrings, as those would not be visible due to the cap.
This ear-iron has these small ornaments, they are made of very fine gold wire hanging from the two conical spirals, with two tiny gold balls hanging under them. Real works of art. They are about three centimetres long and one centimetre wide.