Meet the Expert: Dutch Silver in the Wallace Collection and the Rijksmuseum

Interesting online discussion from the Wallace Collection highlighting examples of Dutch silver in their collection and that of the Rijksmuseum.

Dirk Jan Biemond of Rijksmuseum and Ada de Wit of the Wallace Collection gave us an overview of the Dutch items in their collections with excellent illustrations.

They then compared two examples of items which they both held. They started by looking at collars owned by civic guards and discussed why they often had a parrot on them. Evidently there were annual shooting contexts when the target was a model parrot and the winner won the right to wear the collar for a year. They also used these to talk about the hallmark structure in the Netherlands.

They then moved on to look at baby linen baskets. These were often made of wicker but rich families also had them in silver and each museum had an example and they discussed the decoration and symbolism on them.

I must admit to walking rather quickly through silver galleries but I’ll be more inclined to linger now.

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