New Discoveries in the Dollhouse

From ivory mirror frames to a clock made of tortoiseshell, the Doll’s House is a veritable menagerie. Dried fish hang in the pantry. In the art room, there are two small stuffed turtles and a drawer full of tropical shells. In the kitchen, there is a barrel full of tiny mussels. Doll’s house expert Jet Pijzel-Domisse told us that these small shells were particularly special and more expensive than large ones. This is because these miniature shells are baby shells that do not simply wash ashore. Divers had to search for shells this small.

There is a little dog in the kitchen. A strange rumour has surrounded this object for years: the dog is said to have been made from a mouse. Natalie Dubois, curator of applied arts, was so curious that she took the little dog to the Wilhelminapark veterinary clinic in Utrecht. The vet examined the ‘dog’s’ external features and took X-rays using a machine designed for small rodents. The X-ray revealed that the object did not contain a mouse skeleton, but did show three metal wires holding the animal in shape. However, based on the shape of the hind legs and the skin, the vet concluded that the little dog’s coat could indeed have been made from mouse fur. Possibly even from two mice, as a single mouse pelt would not have been enough to cover the dog’s body.

What struck furniture restorer Jurjen Creman about the miniature furniture was that it was made using exactly the same techniques as full-sized furniture. He showed us that the Doll’s House consists of a cabinet from which all eleven rooms can be removed. If you look closely at the cabinet, you can see traces of hooks that once held a curtain rod. The museum had hung a thick curtain in front of the doll’s house, which visitors were allowed to draw open themselves to view it.

Doll’s house expert Jet Pijzel-Domisse refurbished and studied the Doll’s House in the 1980s. She recently told us that she had made the bed incorrectly at the time. The outer side of the top bedspread is supposed to match the inside of the four-poster bed’s canopy. The initials of Petronella’s husband, Adam Oortman, can be seen on the inside of the canopy, so we have now turned the bedspread over to show the side bearing the same initials.

The Doll’s House contains far more paper objects than you might think at first glance. The ceilings of several rooms are decorated with colourful cut-out engravings. Even spaces such as the kitchen are wallpapered with paper painted white. But the most remarkable items are the little leather and parchment books. They contain engravings, Bible passages and pieces of music composed especially for the doll’s house.

Thanks to paper conservator Herre de Vries, we now know that several drawings were made on parchment rather than paper, as had previously been assumed. He showed us how to identify 17th-century paper. Paper from that period consists of mould-made fibres. The chain lines and laid lines left by the papermaking mould are clearly visible in the paper’s structure. Parchment is much smoother, and this was reflected in the structure of several drawings.

Petronella de la Court owned not only this doll’s house, but also collected paintings, ceramics and numerous curiosities. The doll’s house’s ‘art room’ reflects her collection of curiosities and paintings. The paintings are set in decorative giltwood frames. Paintings conservator Eva van Zuien examined the paintings, frames and murals. The walls of the ‘saletkamer’ (reception room), for example, consist of four richly painted pieces of canvas. The wooden walls and ceiling of the garden are also painted in oils. Using UV and daylight lamps, Van Zuien was able to clearly see the details, varnish and previous retouching. She concluded that the paintings were in good condition, but that the varnish had yellowed considerably.

The kitchen has racks filled with glass objects such as rummers and imitation ceramics. The blue-and-white tableware in the doll’s house may look as though it is made of Chinese porcelain or Delftware, but it is actually white glass with blue painted decoration. These objects proved fragile not only because the material is breakable, but also because of their chemical composition. Much of this glass not only showed cracks from previous incidents, but also looked ‘wet’. According to glass conservator Mandy Slager, this is one of the symptoms of glass disease, an imbalance in the glass’s chemical composition that reacts to moisture in the air.

Research conducted as part of The Dolls Pack Their Bags has shown that the Dolls’ House is in good condition. A small number of the objects will need some extra attention in the coming months. We also want to use this time to find the best solutions to issues such as lighting and the precise arrangement. While the museum building is being made more sustainable, curator Natalie Dubois and the Collection Management staff will ensure that, from autumn 2022, the Dolls’ House is ready for another 100 years.