This year there were
270 international dealers showing and selling at TEFAF the big and beautiful art and antiques fair
that takes place in Maastricht, the Netherlands every year in March. You could find Old Master, modern and contemporary paintings
and sculpture,, objects of art, jewellery high fashion and antique , silver,
drawings, furniture. Most everything is f high quality and expensive to even
more so. There are always pieces to covet. But my favorite was a home rather
than something I wanted to take to my own. Outside the stand of Dutch dealer
John Endlich stood the most charming and surprising object at the fair--a
doll's house furnished in the style of a house inhabited by a rich family in
the 17th century--the Dutch Golden Age. And it was not only in the style
of...The silver furnishings, at least, were original to that period. There was
a taste for various kinds of miniatures at the time--mini versions of the
Chinese porcelain or Dutch pottery that was in vogue. But the 200 pieces are
exceedingly rare survivors representing perhaps two thirds of all that is
left..
Imagine that you are collector. You begin slowly but then
the bug bites. For 20 years, with the help of your dealer--Mr Endlich in this
case--you accumulate a spectacular collection. Eventual you manage to corral
some 200 of them--mirrors, garden ornaments, chandeliers, tea kettles, andirons
tables, chairs,tables, musical
instruments, chests--oh and a bed- warmer, too. Let's not overlook the wine
cooler and garden fountain--the only two of their kind to remain.
You might think such a collection, this collection, would be
too adorable or fiddly. What makes it art is the quality of the craftsmanship,
the imagination of the makers and a touch of surrealism. Individually a piece would have been made to
scale; a perfectly scaled down version of the original biggie. But the scale
used is not uniform. All are miniatures; all doll house ready for that reason,
but the table top virginal, for instance, is tiny compared to the dice next to
it. The same hand would not have successfully managed both.
It must have been difficult but also fun to hunt down these
little treasures. But then came the question of what to do with them? Would the
next generation want them? How to guarantee that they would be kept together?
If sold one by one, the odds of pieces disappearing would go way up.
.
With the help of his dealer, Mr X found an ingenious
solution. A doll house would be made and,furnished with his collection as well
such additions as fireplaces and beds of the period., No doubt the three
wonderful 17th century doll houses now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (do not
miss if them when you visit) were sources of inspiration. These were never
meant as children's playthings.. Indeed
at the time, it cost as much to commission and furnish one of them as it
would have been to buy a grand house on one of Amsterdam's canals.
Problem solved. Set in their new magnificent home, the
silver miniatures along with the house they furnished would be sold together.
It would all be kept together..
And so it happened at TEFAF this year that in front of Herr
Endlich's stand stood a proper Dutch 17th century cabinet on a stand in which
nine rooms had been fashioned==from laundry to garden with a view of the
neighborhood as it would have been in Holland during the 1600s. The price tag
was 175,000 euros.
This story ends fittingly. This dream house is going on a
journey across the ocean. It was quickly bought by a collector who is giving it
on long term loan to the Boston's Museum of Fine Arts..
