Anthony Donker, Silver glass cooler, 1708, material: silver, collection: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS—Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has a new display of its study collection with more than 1350 items of domestic metalwork. The new display shows a selection from the museum’s enormous collection of pre-industrial domestic objects, including the Van Beuningen-de Vriese Collection.

The installation was a huge job, with a large team of volunteers enlisted to polish the items. Objects in diverse metals – from iron to gold – show the development of functional design across the centuries. To bring order to this great variety of objects the display is organized around eight themes, including ‘materials and techniques’, ‘kitchen utensils’, ‘accessories’ and ‘toys’, which provide an overview of pre-industrial utensils from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. The display is supplemented with contemporary objects in order to show recent technological developments. This study collection augments ‘The Design Collection’, which has been on display since the beginning of the year.

The display includes the Smart Replicas that Studio Maaike Roozenburg has made in collaboration with the museum. Inspired by the collection of pre-industrial domestic objects, she has made copies of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century items using a combination of craft techniques and the latest 3D scanning and printing technology. In this way Roozenburg turns museum pieces into everyday utensils. Also on display is the series ‘Volete vedere imiei cucciai usati 010802-010812’ by Lam de Wolf. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen acquired the first edition from this series in 2003. The artwork comprises paper cut-outs of spoons the artist has used on a daily basis, creating a unique diary. After ten years the series is now complete and is displayed as a wall installation.

Many of the objects on display have been selected from the Van Beuningen-de Vriese Collection, which is shown in various configurations in the pavilion that bears the same name. Together with the museum’s collection of industrial design, the display affords the viewer a broad survey of developments in household items. H.J.E. van Beuningen, a nephew of D.G. van Beuningen from whom the museum takes part of its name, gave his collection of pre-industrial domestic objects to the museum in 1990. The pavilion was designed by architect Hubert-Jan Henket in 1991 to house the collection.

Since the opening of the pavilion, the basement area has been used as a general study collection with display cases from floor to ceiling. In addition to this presentation, a growing number of objects from the collection can be viewed the museum website in which pre-industrial objects are linked to depictions in paintings and drawings in the collection.

Nicolaas Kraan, Kettle, 1750, materials:tin, lacquerwork, wood, collection:Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Anonymous, Frying pan with wooden handle (added later), ca.1300-1400. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.