Sara Rothe Cabinet Dollhouse, found on the Dollhouse And Miniature Blog

Sara Rothe-Two Dollhouses Not Enough

Sara Rothe had two cabinet dollhouse: one a replica of her town home; the other of her country place. But even that was not enough. In April 1743 she bought 3 more at auction for 1000 guilders. I’ll leave it to you to figure out how much that is in today’s money. A lot, anyway. This one is probably the town house, on display at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know. The following are bits from Wikipedia I compiled.

The Curiosity Cabinet

In the early 18th century, Amsterdam’s canal houses were home to a multitude of curiosity cabinets, and one type that was often kept by women, was the “miniature house”, a dollhouse based on the owner’s own house in real life, and which often included miniature books, art objects, and furniture items from chamber pots to garden fountains. Such dollhouses were meant for show rather than play, and visitors from all over the Netherlands and

Sara Rothe Cabinet Dollhouse – The Entrance Hall

beyond would come to Amsterdam to visit such “cabinets”. Sara Rothé was a dollhouse owner who spent most of her time on decorating and showing her cabinet. She was herself a very good embroiderer and embroidered most of the cloth furnishings in the cabinet. According to a book produced by the museum, she kept two dollhouses, which she was constantly improving, and a large improvement was achieved when she bought three dollhouses for 1,000 guilders, which were advertised for auction on April 2, 1743 in

Sara Rothe Cabinet Dollhouse – the Nursery

the Amsterdamse Courant. Two of these had been the dollhouses of Cornelia van der Gon, the wealthy widow of Adriaan Dortsman who later married the artist David van der Plas

The miniature houses that Sara Rothé created were probably based on her house in Amsterdam, Keizersgracht 474, and her summer home or “buitenplaats” called “Klein Berkenrode” which was located on what is today the Rijksstraatweg in Haarlem.

Sara Rothe Cabinet Canal House – The Attic

Sara Rothé died in an accident when her car fell to the Haarlemmertrekvaart near Halfweg when she was traveling from her summer home in Haarlem, to Halfweg to pick up her husband who left the city to join her there. Though she, her husband, and two visitors were with her in the coach at the time, and two tug boats came quickly to the rescue, she drowned because it was too difficult to pull her out.

Susan