cabinet

This cabinet commemorates an ambassadorial expedition made by the Dutch East India Company to the Grand Tartar Cham, emperor of China, for the purpose of negotiating trade privileges during the 1650s. The expeditionary company included Johann Nieuhof who documented the journey including extensive illustrations of the people, architecture, plants and animals that he encountered along the many outposts of the Indo-Chinese trade routes. Published in 1655, his book was circulated throughout the Netherlands, its illustrations are considered the first accurate visual representations of China published in Europe. The cabinet was made 50 years after that Dutch East India Company’s journey. Each drawer of the cabinet has an engraved glass panel affixed in front of a mirrored interior cavity. The mirrors reflect light and enhance the represented scene with an illusion of three-dimensionality. The person who commissioned the cabinet chose which of the 150 scenes from Nieuhof’s illustrations should be represented on the panels. Use the touchscreen panel below to compare the etched glass renderings with the original Nieuhof illustrations. We don’t know what would have been stored in this cabinet, but it was common at that time for curio cabinets to hold collections of rare or unusual natural wonders such as seashells or gemstones, as well as man-made treasures and keepsakes from far-flung corners of the world.