Museum of Bags and Purses closed

27 April 2020

Museum of Bags and Purses closed

The first museum to fall victim to the Corona crisis is the popular Museum of Bags and Purses on the Herengracht in Amsterdam. Today it was announced that this special theme museum will close for good. We cherish pleasant memories of this museum, where objects from our collection were on loan numerous times. It is sad that such a special initiative ends up failing because of something so banal as money, not because of a lack of interest! The Dutch Museum Association gave a warning that more museums will have to close down this year.

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Lead models

22 April 2020

Lead models

A remarkable sub-collection within the large group of tools in our museum is the series of lead models. These are casts in lead of the pipe moulds made by the firm P. Goedewaagen & Son in Gouda. These massive lead pipes were used by the mould maker to bring back the moulds to good condition when worn. Interesting about the lead models is that a shape number is stamped on. In some cases, the original press mould has not been preserved, but only the model. This then provides information about a specific pipe shape including the shape number. Some of these lead models have been on our online database for many years, but a large group was still undocumented. That happened this week and yielded many new insights. Meanwhile, the photos of this important collection have also been taken, they will be visible in the online database in a week or two. This is another job done from the many museum work that goes unnoticed behind the scenes.

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Museum week

20 April 2020

Museum week

The National Museum Week is being held this year in a special way because of the Corona flue only virtual. To this end, the Museum Association has built a fantastic web page with - due to the theme of 75 years of Freedom since WW2 - a digital reconstruction of Dam Square, 3-dimensional and moving. Photos of a masterpiece of every museum in the Netherlands are projected on the Monument. We are in the middle with an American peace pipe, the symbol of peace for everyone from childhood. Click on this link for the photo and the story: https://www.nationalemuseumweek.nl/pronkstukken/vredespijp/. The presentation on Dam Square can be seen at: https: https://goudenpronkstuk.nationalemuseumweek.nl/

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Collectors fair in Utrecht

17 April 2020

Collectors fair in Utrecht

For years we have been visiting the famous annual collectors' market in Utrecht. Formerly as an exhibitor, nowadays to maintain contacts with the trade and other collectors. This would also be the case today, were it not for the corona that spoils everything. The fair has been cancelled of course. For the first time in years, this means no trouvailles from this huge market. Usually they are not shocking things that you find, but also ordinary objects without art value can be worthwhile for history. Often those simple or mundane things from one, two or three generations back are now incredibly rare. And it is precisely at this fair that objects that you do not expect at all appear. Too bad this opportunity for a fine treasure hunt now passes.

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Newly installed Africa storage

9 April 2020

Newly installed Africa storage

The work behind the scenes of our museum, which is closed to the public, is getting more and more visible results. At the beginning of the Corona closure, there was too much overdue emails, small work that is necessary but hardly visible. For some time now we have been working on rearranging, packing and furnishing a depot especially for the Africa collection. As mentioned earlier, this group was significantly supplemented last year with an impressive collection of Congo pipes, which is why rearrangement was now topical. The pipes are now well packed in boxes per country or per people, all within a dedicated cupboard. As a result, space has become available in other places for the wider storage of other items. It is quite a job to rearrange like this, but in the end the result is a clear collection. That is exactly the intention.

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Translation lists for the database

2 April 2020

Translation lists for the database

Without visitors during the afternoon hours, there is more time for work behind the scenes. One of those invisible tasks is working on the new database and the new website. We aim to launch an English site in addition to the Dutch website within a few months. Before that, there is still an incredible amount to be translated. In recent weeks we have been examining the thesauri, lists of terms that appear in the database and have now been translated into English, German and French. A huge task to translate the endless lists of keywords such as materials, techniques, colours. In particular, the technical terms often form a stumbling block, which we will find out with some study. When the new site is launched, the translations will automatically appear in the object descriptions, but they will also act as a keyword in the search form. We are already looking forward to the result, although it will be tough task for the time being.

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