(No photo or image available. Who knows of one?)
A lead hat edge [or hat weight] 'Een lode hoede rand', In the great Hall ("groote zael") Room I.
According to textile specialist Marieke de Winkel hat edges were sometimes weighted with a lead strip. She does not know of any extant examples but in a private communication (2002) she cites this 1690 Dictionnaire by Antoine Furetiere: "Rond de plomb: c'est une grande plaque de plomb qui a la figure d'un chapeau sans forme, de laquelle on se sert pour tenir un chapeau en estat." [Lead crescent, this is a large lead plaque which has the shape of a formless hat, in which one puts it in order to keep the hat straight on]
Ms. Bianca du Mortier of the The Rijksmuseum staff was so kind as to try to determine this object but was unable to provide either additional information or images.
Note: This object was part of the Vermeer-inventory as listed by the clerk working for Delft notary public J. van Veen. He made this list on February 29, 1676, in the Thins/Vermeer home located on Oude Langendijk on the corner of Molenpoort. The painter Johannes Vermeer had died there at the end of December 1675. His widow Catherina and their eleven children still lived there with her mother Maria Thins.
The transcription of the 1676 inventory, now in the Delft archives, is based upon its first full publication by A.J.J.M. van Peer, "Drie collecties...", Oud Holland, 1957, pp. 98-103. My additions and explanations are added in square brackets [__]. Dutch terms have been checked against the world's largest language dictionary, the Dictionary of the Dutch Language (Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal , or WNT), which was begun by De Vries en Te Winkel in 1882.
In 2001 many textile terms have been kindly explained by art historian Marieke de Winkel.
Literature: the bilingual book by Bianca M du Mortier: Chapeau Chapeaux Hoeden 1650-1960, 40 hoeden uit de verzameling van het Rijksmuseum ;Chapeau Chapeaux Hats 1650-1960, 40 hats from the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1997.
This page forms part of a large encyclopedic site on Vermeer and Delft. Research by Drs. Kees Kaldenbach (email). A full presentation is on view at johannesvermeer.info.
Launched December, 2002; Last update March 2, 2017.
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