Pots, vats and barrels in the basement

 

Three Cologne butter pots, a tin butter pot, 'Drie keulse boterpotten ; een tinne boterpoth', In the little room by the Great Hall, room G which served as larder.

Cellar pots gave resistance to dampness, insects and rodents.

The inventory of the basement (room E) in the Thins/Vermeer home was not made. We do know that a basement existed for just above was the room named room on top of the basement, 'Op de keldercamer' , room B. The floor of this room was constructed at about 1 meter (3 feet) height above the level of the Forehouse. One reached the basement via the Cooking Kitchen (room D).

 

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..." in Oud Holland 1957, pp. 98-103. My additions and explanations are added within 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 te Winkel.

Illustration taken from the recently published handbook on Dutch Doll Houses by Jet Pijzel-Dommisse,Het Hollandse pronkpoppenhuis, Interieur en huishouden in de 17de en 18de eeuw, Waanders, Zwolle; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2000, ill.645-646.

 

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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