JvM (check code)

Jan van der Meer (1616-1683). Apothecary, Head man of his Guild in the 1650's. Address Voldersgracht in 1640 ; after 1648 Koornmarkt ; buried from Voorstraat, East side. As an avid collector he had ties with East and West India Company (VOC and WIC) leaders. His collection was visited in 1663 by Sir Philip Skippon, author of his Account of a Journey... There he saw a 'museum or a cabinet of varieties'. Amongst the long list of animals and curiosities were a "...zebra or civet-cat, a piece of rhinoceros's skin, the head of a dolphin, a giant's tooth, an elephant's tooth, petim buaba or tobacco-pipe fish, the cup prince Willian of Orange last drank out of, the idol Isis, another idol being a brass heron on a tortoise, Indian dice, a Japan letter written to the Dutch governor, a locust of the type St. John the Baptist ate, the brains of a sea-cow petrified, etc." He also had a garden of rare plants.

Note. Hale 1937, p. 14, 31. A complete (and very long) list in H.A. Bosman-Jelgertsma, Vijf eeuwen Detlfse apothekers (...) Amsterdam, 1979. p. 123-127 ; 148. GAD Huizenprotocol shows eight houses under that name.

This page forms part of a large encyclopedic site on Delft. Research by Drs. Kees Kaldenbach (email). A full presentation is on view at johannesvermeer.info.

Launched 16 February 2005; Last update March 1, 2017. More info in the RKD site.