HET LOO – Queen Mary’s Porcelain at Palace Het Loo

Queen Mary’s Porcelain at Het Loo

In 1677, the English - conveniently protestant - princess Mary Stuart, arrived in the Dutch Republic, after marrying her cousin Stadholder William of Orange. She found herself at a rather sober court, but one where Chinese porcelain was already highly esteemed.

BY NYNKE VAN DER VEN

Even though Mary would have previously seen such exotic wares in the English palaces, it was at the Dutch court where it was a particularly loved, collected and lusciously displayed. Here, Chinese porcelains had come to represent the success and wealth of the Dutch Republic and the glory of the House of Orange. By the time of her death in 1675 William’s grandmother, Amalia von Solms, had already amassed a truly impressive collection of 1200 porcelains from China and Japan. Her daughters, the Orange princesses, also took their beloved oriental porcelain abroad with them when they married, constructing dedicated porcelain rooms in their palaces – such as in the German Schloss Oranienburg.

Being in The Netherlands, they were certainly right at the source of where most of the porcelain was entering Europe. At the time the Dutch East India company (VOC) was importing substantial amounts of Chinese porcelain to Amsterdam, from where it was auctioned and distributed across Europe. We can assume, that the availability of and proximity to so much Blue and White porcelain, no-doubt fuelled Mary’s passion for these wares.

Paleis Het Loo William and Mary did not start off in a happy matrimony, but over the course of the years they developed a very good relationship. Mary even came to grow very fond of the peaceful and friendly country, where she had come to live. Together the royal couple shared an interest in architecture, gardens and interiors, happily overseeing the refurbishment of their Dutch palaces; bringing them up to date in a style befitting Mary’s royal status.

The royal couple shared an interest in architecture, gardens and interiors

DANIEL MAROT’S DESIGN MAROT CHIMNEYBREAST DESIGN

The French Huguenot designer and architect Daniel Marot would produce a suitable palace for the royal couple, with his fashionable French inspired designs

As with other European royal residences at the time, the palace, interiors and gardens of Versailles were a good source of inspiration.

For the construction of their summer palace Het Loo, they enlisted the services of French Huguenot designer and architect Daniel Marot. His fashionable French inspired designs, would produce a suitable palace for the royal couple. Work commenced in 1686 and was completed by 1688; with further extensions in 1692 made after Mary had moved back to England. Marot’s, interior schemes integrated a variety art objects and textiles into his designs, to form a coordinated look. Studying Marot’s design books, we can see he makes abundant use of Asian porcelain, placing it on wall brackets, over-door shelves and around chimney breasts. We can therefore get a good sense of how Het Loo was intended to look. Contemporary inventories complete the picture, by recording how much porcelain was used and where. The Chinese porcelain was mainly found in the Queens and King’s private apartments. From travel journals we also know that in the long picture gallery there were large porcelain jardinieres containing orange trees. Through excavated remnants, it can be concluded that these were like those which are still in Hampton Court Palace today. Most of the porcelain at Het Loo was blue and white, only a small proportion was coloured.

PICTURE GALLERY

Mary had a particular passion for flowers and requested fresh flowers be put in her rooms every day - as was also the fashion at the French court. At Het Loo there was even a special tiled room in the cellars, which led directly to the Queen’s private garden. It could be reached by a staircase leading directly from her first floor apartments. Here she could make sweetmeats and arrange flowers in Chinese pots and specially commissioned Delftware flower pyramids. It is also in this part of the garden, that fragments of Chinese porcelain and Delft earthenware have been found.

The English Palaces The accession of Mary II as Queen of England in 1689, also entailed a joint sovereignty with her husband, who was duly crowned William III. After their arrival in England, they also set about expanding and redecorating their royal residences, again with the help of Daniel Marot. Mary brought most of her beloved blue and white porcelains with her to England, where they were given pride of place in her new reception and private rooms. Inventories record that at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court, very extravagant porcelain displays were installed in the Queen’s royal apartments, which no-doubt impressed and inspired all who saw them. According to contemporary accounts, we can now ascertain that besides blue and white, there were also a number of coloured porcelains, as well as a variety Blanc de Chine wares and soap stone figures on display. These type of objects, must have similarly embellished their Dutch interiors. At the time, Mary’s ensembles of porcelain, would have been very novel in England and certainly caused quite a stir; probably triggering a fashion for Oriental ceramics. Contemporary privy purse account books, show Mary continued to acquire ceramics until her death, from merchants in both Holland as well as England.

Oriental porcelain, which had once been merely an isolated curio in a wealthy collector’s cabinets, had by the late 17th century effectively evolved into being placed in ostentatious displays, with many pieces massed together in specially-designed rooms. Initially, these Chinese porcelain rooms do seem to have been the particular remit of women, as many accounts of them are connected to female quarters.

TILED CELLAR

To celebrate the reopening of the palace in 2022, a new book has been published. A large well illustrated volume, containing all the latest research on this important historic building, as well as its royal residents. It covers the important first expansion by Prince William of Orange and Mary Stuart, through various royal residents to the present day.

Anne-Dirk Renting (editor), Paleis Het Loo: Een Koninklijk Huis, Apeldoorn, 2022 Hardback (Dutch) €75,00

EXHIBITION ‘’TRACES OF THE PAST’

However, by the 18th century they were an essential part of the fully fledged Porcelain mania which gripped the courts of Northern Europe, such as in Charlottenburg, Dresden and Drottningholm.

Mary Stuart died in England of small pox in 1695, so she would never see Het Loo completed. The couple were childless and William passes away in 1702 after a riding accident.

Het Loo Restoration & Excavation Sadly, most of Mary’s interior schemes in The Netherlands have been lost in their entirety - those at Het Loo destroyed after the flight of King Willem V to England. Since becoming a museum in 1984, Het Loo has undergone various major restoration projects - for the building as well as the gardens. Through written records and inventories, art historians have been able to reconstruct how the rooms must have originally looked, including the interiors with Chinese porcelain.

During the most recent refurbishment and underground extension (2018-2022), more unique shards were found. These help to illuminate the types of ceramics that would have been at Het Loo during the time of William & Mary. A particularly interesting new find is a piece Kangxi period (1662-1722) Famille Verte porcelain – which at the time would have been a totally new kind of porcelain amongst the established blue and white wares. A small exhibition ‘Traces of the Past’ in the basement level of the palace, now elucidates these finds. ◆ paleishetloo.nl

SOURCES

• JAN VAN CAMPEN & TITUS ELIËENS (ED.), CHINESE AND JAPANESE PORCELAIN

FOR THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE, ZWOLLE, 2014 • A.M.L.E. ERKELENS, QUEEN MARY’S DELFT PORCELAIN, APELDOORN, 1996 • MARK HINTON & OLIVER IMPEY, KENSINGTON PALACE AND THE PORCELAIN

OF QUEEN MARY, LONDON, 1998 • KOEN OTTENHEYM, WILLEM TERLOUW & ROB VAN ZOEST, DANIEL MAROT:

VORMGEVER VAN EEN DEFTIG BESTAAN, AMSTERDAM, 1988 • ANNE-DIRK RENTING (EDITOR) ET AL, PALEIS HET LOO: EEN KONINKLIJK HUIS,

APELDOORN, 2022 • VIRGINIA TREANOR, “UNE ABONDANCE EXTRA ORDINAIRE”: THE PORCELAIN

COLLECTION OF AMALIA VAN SOLMS , EARLY MODERN WOMEN: AN

INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL VOL. 9, NO. 1, 2014