A "toers" [silk and wool material] mantle of the aforesaid late Sr. Vermeer (Een Turxse [= toers] mantel vande voorn. Sr. Vermeer zal.) In the Great Hall, room I.
Could this one have been owned by Vermeers father? In 1623 an inventory was made of moveable goods "sold" by Reynier Jansz (Vermeer's father), to Balthasar Gerrits (the father of Digna Baltens, Vermeer's mother). It mentions a mantle wordt 36 guilders.
The image above shows a gear for a horseback rider. It consists of a gentleman's cape and a felt hat, made form animal hair, with embroidered silver tread. Date c. 1600-1650, according to tradition worn by Hendrik Casimir, Count of Nassau Dietz (1612-1640). See Du Mortier, p. 48.
"Toers" or "Turks" here indicates the quality of the woolen material and not the cut of the mantle. Toers is a course sort of wool and silk weave which was mainly produced in Leyden [Leiden]. (communication Marieke de Winkel, 2001)
I do not know whether mantles on Vermeer paintings and on these pictures show toers material.
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 de Winkel.
See also Marieke de Winkel, 'The Interpretation of Dress in Vermeer's Paintings' in Vermeer Studies, edited by Ivan Gaskell and Michiel Jonker, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1998,327-339.
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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