Plate [XLIII] represents a large Dutch kas, or buffet à deux corps, from the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. This magnificent specimen is of solid ebony inlaid with ivory. Its grooved columns, panels and niches break up the plain surface with much variety. It stands on eight bulb feet. It is similar in shape to the English “court cupboard” of the same century.
Plate [XLIV] represents a large armoire, or kas, from the Cluny Museum, Paris. This was made in Holland. The front is ornamented with three pilasters with carved capitals, between which are the two doors or wings decorated with carved panels. The cornice is ornamented with three lions’ heads. Beneath the columns are drawers with simple knobs. This piece of furniture stands on flattened bulb feet.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century, the cabinet was found in every home of moderate wealth. In an inventory of 1679, “a root-wood cabinet, with Japanese small dishes and ‘colossol’ (very large) pots under its high feet” is mentioned. These cabinets stood on high legs, sometimes with only one drawer underneath. They were frequently made of rough pinewood painted red; but often they were very handsome (see Plate [XXXI]). In the bedroom of Lady Reepmaker in the Castle of Develstein there was a “cabinet-maker’s small cupboard to put dresses in, one one-drawer cabinet on a high base, one hair-dressing table, one ditto chair, one ditto mirror with ebony frame, one gold leather comb-holder, and the ‘nachtbouquet’” (night bouquet), a piece of furniture used by the upper classes after 1672, in which everything relating to the toilet of the period was found, such as: a silver framed mirror, powder boxes, silver trays, pin-books, patch-boxes, hair and clothes brushes, and other small toilet articles, as well as silver candlesticks, snuffers and snuffer-trays.
When a wealthy lady sat in front of her “dressing-cloth,” as her dressing-table was familiarly called, she had before her an array of bottles and boxes containing perfumes, powders, paints and beauty patches, as well as a treasure-house of pearls, diamonds, rings and bracelets set with glittering stones, ear-rings, necklaces, chains of pearls, gold and silver pins, spangles, half-moons, so that she looked like “a sun surrounded by suns,” or a “diamond surrounded by rubies.”
Plate XLIII.—Kas of Ebony and Ivory.
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
Her innumerable toilet-boxes of tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl, her silver and gold scent-boxes, her boxes of filigree, her ivory, ebony and porcelain boxes and trays for her patches and cosmetics, her rich jewel cases of gold, silver, tortoiseshell or ivory, lined with velvet, her brushes and her shoe-horns, and her beautiful work-boxes supplied with thimbles, bodkins, knitting-needles, hooks, scissors, and everything that could be used for sewing and fancy needlework are displayed on her toilet-table and in her cabinets.
The table-cover or “carpet” was a most important decorative feature of the Dutch room. It was generally a handsome Oriental rug. This was thrown over the dining-table, the ordinary table in the hall or kitchen (see Plate [XXVII] and Plate [XXXVI]), in the bedroom (see Plate [XXVI] and Plate [XXXVII]), and used also for the toilet-table (see Plate [XL]). Often it was ornamented with handsome fringe (see Plate [XXVI] and Plate [XXVII]). When an impromptu meal was served, it was the custom to cover the handsome cloth with a white cloth, of which the Dutch housewife always had a large supply (see Plate [XXXVI] and Plate [XLII]). Four exceptionally handsome table “carpets” appear in Plate [XL], Plate [XXXIX], Plate [XXVI] and Plate [XXXVII].
In nearly every Dutch interior one notes the presence of the foot-warmer or foot-stove—a little wooden box with a perforated top and sometimes perforated sides of wood or brass. In this, glowing embers were placed. One of these is seen in Plate [XXVI] and another in Plate [XXXVII], while in Plate [XXXVIII] a cat is seen comfortably keeping itself warm. On Plate [XXXIX] the lady playing the double-necked lute has her foot on one of these universally used articles.
These foot-warmers that served as footstools, and were carried to church, are described in Roemer Visscher’s Sinnenpoppen (Animated Dolls). He calls them “mignon des dames,” and says: “Een stoef met vier daer in, is een bemint juweel by onse Hollandsche vrouwen, bysonder als de sneeuwvlocken vlieghen ende hagel ende rijp het lof van de boomen jaeght.”