The next salon, de sale naar de Trappenye, is hung with portraits, and some large pictures, one of which represents Samson proving his strength.
In the dining-room, in de nieuwe gemaeckte stove, there are also many pictures, including portraits, a “winter scene” and a “Flemish Kermesse.” The principal piece of furniture is a superb sideboard of carved oak, on which the following pieces of silver are displayed: one aiguière and basin with the arms of Spies; four candelabra with chiselled sconces, an extinguisher with tray, and an amphora, all with the arms of Lutzenrode; two large jugs, a deep dish, a mustard-pot and six salt-cellars, also with the arms of Lutzenrode; a chafing-dish with the Ruyssenbergh arms, twenty-two spoons, twenty-six forks, twenty-two knives, and ten porcelain wine-jugs with silver tops.
Next to this hall is the bishop’s room, which is luxuriously furnished. The walls are hung with eight large “tapestries of leather” with gold patterns on a silver background. The bed is upholstered with curtains of mauve silk trimmed with a silk braid of yellow and violet. It is furnished with two mattresses, a bolster, two pillows, and two counterpanes—one white, the other green—and over the whole is thrown a large counterpane of embroidered silk trimmed with a fringe of silk and gold thread. The window-curtains, the six chairs, and armchair, are covered with the same silk as the counterpane. There is a large mirror in an ebony frame and portraits of Maximilian, Syberg, and Bongaert.
The bishop’s room is next to the salon, groot salet beneden d’aarde, which is hung with thirteen pieces of “leather tapestry,” showing gold patterns on a red background. On the mantelpiece there is a crucifix carved of boxwood, the foot of which is incrusted with mother-of-pearl, and there is a magnificent mirror of gold and black wood, the fronton of which is ornamented with a silk cord with large tassels, the whole supported by three gilded griffins. This room also contains sixteen pictures, nine of which are still-life, and are signed Jacques van Esch of Antwerp (1606–1666).
The commander’s bedroom is very modest, as becomes one who has assumed the vows of poverty: a little walnut bed with very ordinary curtains, with a mattress, two bolsters, three pillows (one covered with white leather, which he takes on his travels), and a counterpane of quilted silk. He allowed himself the luxury of a fire, because there are andirons and a hearth-box. A portrait of the Virgin and The Temptation of St. Anthony are his only pictures, and the one ornament is a sculptured Descent from the Cross. A little desk and a close chair covered in black leather and inlaid with copper, complete the furniture of this room, which makes an interesting contrast with the bishop’s.
The enormous number of cooking utensils in the kitchen show that the most lavish hospitality was offered in this house. Every kind of copper pot and pan, from the largest saucepan and boiler (de schonck of hespenketel) to the tiniest pans for cakes and pastry (een clein coper panneke waarin men dry eieren kan doppen, and koek and taart pannen), are present in great numbers; and, moreover, there are portable ovens to bake tarts, ladles, skimmers, sieves, spice-boxes, spits, skewers, ten grills, large and small, some of them for roasting oysters—in short every article that a cook would need to prepare a feast for a gourmet.
The buffets, armoires and shelves of the kitchen are filled with valuable metal ware, including eight aiguières and eight dishes, weighing sixty-five pounds. These are marked with the arms of Spies and Syberg. Then there are seventeen candlesticks, some of which have round and others square bases; there are ninety-three large and small dishes with the arms of Lutzenrode, Spies and Syberg, and a hundred and twenty-eight plates with the arms of the various commanders. The shelves also contain a great number of wine jars and measures and pots for holding grape-juice and a great number of earthenware dishes, crocks, etc.
There is a special pantry, and near this a pastry-room; and a brewery, a harness-room, tool houses, a house for the gardener, and in the park, which is a kind of botanical garden, there is a pavilion on a knoll, where any one desiring to fish could find rods and lines.
The kitchen is the most important room in the majority of the middle-class houses; in fact, in many a Flemish and Dutch interior it appears as the general living-room. Plate [XXVII] and Plate [XXXVI] afford Dutch examples.
A fine example of a Flemish kitchen of the seventeenth century is by Teniers the younger, called The Good Kitchen in the Hague Gallery. This was painted in 1644.