In pursuit of provenance: a strongbox of secrets
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In the years ahead, a specialist team of researchers will be focusing on new and additional research into the provenance of objects in the Netherlands Art Property (Nederlands Kunstbezit, NK) collection in order to enable permanent access to relevant information and data. This renewed impetus to research in this area promises to provide an even better picture of the objects and ultimately result in more restitution requests, ensuring that property can be returned to the rightful owners and heirs. In this blog series, In pursuit of provenance, we focus each month on a different object, which is the subject of provenance research. This month: ‘Die wat spaert intijts vindt wat inde pot’, an unusual strongbox. Perhaps you know who the owner is?
Exciting treasure chest
This Dutch iron chest, also called an armada, probably dates from the 17th century. The lock can be found on the front of the panel and is still complete with its key. The chest has a complicated closing mechanism with, for instance, hidden keyholes and false panels. It can only be opened by performing actions in a certain order. The contents of this specific box is unknown, because it has yet to be opened. Money, jewelry and valuable papers can often been found in this type of chest.
Recognizing the armada
The chest has a rectangular shape and measures 41 (h) x 76 (w) x 38 (d) cm. The paint is polychrome and has a rich decoration with many shades of green and yellow. Dutch scenes with ships, landscapes with trees, windmills and haystacks are surrounded by tulips and other flowers on the lid and front plate. This type of chest is not unusual, but the inscription on the metal band on the lid is. In translation it reads: ‘Whoever saves finds something in the pot’, with the date ‘Anno 1691’. The chest most probably stood against something, because the back is not decorated.
The provenance investigation
We delved into the archives to find out more on this chest. A declaration form was found in the archives of the Netherlands Art Property Foundation (SNK). This foundation was established in June 1945 with the primary task of recovering Dutch art property that had been stolen during the war. The archive contains information about the foundation's working methods and hundreds of files in the name of requests from owners and next of kin. At this moment it is unknown to whom this chest belonged, but it was most probably owned by a private individual. What we do know for sure is that the box ended up in Germany, because it was transported back to the Netherlands from Höchst on July 10, 1946. The mention 'Höchst loot' suggests that this is war booty, but we have not found any further information about that either.
In addition to archival and literature research we also examined the object itself, because marks and labels often provide new clues for further investigation. This box is on loan from the Belfort van Sluis museum. In this case, in addition to previously described features, no marks were found on the object.
Help wanted
A team of provenance researchers at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) focuses on renewed and additional research on objects from the NK-collection. All data and results are digitally accessible. Not all data on this chest is known yet, like who the creator was and who the owner, nor do we know in which conditions the chest was brought back from Germany. If you have any more additional information on this chest, please contact us: restitutie@cultureelerfgoed.nl.
This blog was written by Annelies Kool, senior provenance researcher at the RCE.