Petronella Dunois dollshouse in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Dolls’ House of Petronella Dunois, ca. 1676

The Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam has an extraordinary dolls house collection. Various objects in the dolls’ house pictured above are marked with the year 1676, which was probably when it was mostly completed. It was made for Petronella Dunois (1650–1695), a wealthy orphan who

lived with her sister in Amsterdam. The dolls’ house contains a peat loft, a linen room, a nursery, a lying-in room, a reception room, a cellar, a kitchen and a dining room. It is made of wood and other plant material.

Doll’s house of Petronella Oortman, 1686 – 1710 n the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Dolls House of Petronella Oortman, 1686 – 1710

This doll’s house is very lifelike. All the objects are made of the right materials, and the proportions are exactly correct. The beautiful cabinet decorated with marquetry of tin on tortoise was made by a cabinetmaker from France, which for several years had worked in Amsterdam. The cabinet made of oak wood, veneered with tortoiseshell and pewter.

Petronella Oortman was married to the Amsterdam merchant Johannes Brandt.

Kitchen room box with 45 miniature items, c. 1845, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Kitchen room box with 45 miniature items, c. 1845

In the mid-19th century, a collector of miniature silver had this wooden doll’s house kitchen made to provide a natural setting for his collection of 18th-century miniature domestic silver. That the miniatures were not made for this cabinet is clear from their scale: the brushes, for example, are much bigger than the linen press, whereas in real life they would have been considerably smaller. It is made of wood and other plant material.

Xandra Dekker blog, All About Dollhouses and Miniatures

Xandra Dekker’s “All About Dollhouses and Miniatures”

This is one of my favorite blogs. It has no connection to the Rijksmuseum, but is a goldmine of information about the dolls houses of The Netherlands.

You may be interested in our article “Cabinet Dollhouses.”

Susan Downing, with Patrick Owens

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