Maurits House Museum

The Maurits House Museum in The Hague is presented as both an art gallery and a royal cabinet of curiosities, with collections that range from paintings and Japanese artifacts to weapons and Dutch historical relics. The boys’ visit makes the building’s significance vivid through the contrast between what they have time to inspect and what they hurry past: its rooms offer more to see than even a lengthy visit can absorb.

Gallery and Cabinet of Curiosities

The picture gallery is described as one of the finest in the world. The boys spend two hours there, yet it seems to have flashed by; the royal cabinet of curiosities, in the same building, occupies nearly half a day and still feels only briefly glimpsed. The account gives the visit a sense of abundance: the collections continually exceed the time available to take them in.

The cabinet’s Japanese rooms are especially prominent. The narrative connects their contents to a period when the Netherlands, foremost in commerce, was the only nation permitted to have intercourse with Japan. Costumes associated with different ranks and occupations stand alongside ornaments, household utensils, weapons, armor, and surgical instruments. The range makes the collection a record of everyday objects as well as specialized and martial ones.

Models and Ways of Seeing

Among the exhibits is an ingenious model of Desina, the Dutch factory in Japan. Its miniature island and hundreds of figures show people in native dress at work or in ordinary postures, while dwellings and furniture are laid out in detail. The model compresses a distant place into a scene that can be surveyed at once, giving the visitors a constructed view of Dutch presence in Japan.

Another striking object is a large tortoiseshell dollhouse furnished in Dutch style and inhabited by Dutch dolls. Set beside the Japanese model, it offers a miniature view of life at home as a counterpart to the distant trading settlement. The contrast between the two models makes the cabinet’s appeal more than a matter of accumulation: its objects invite visitors to compare different settings and ways of life.

The Boys’ Visit and the Collections’ Effect

The girls—Gretel Brinker, Hilda van Gleck, Katrinka Flack, and Rychie Korbes—would have delighted in the Japanese model and dollhouse, but Peter van Holp and the boys with him pass them without a glance. The party is drawn instead to the war implements, which hold their attention for an hour: clubs, daggers, firearms, and Japanese swords. Their selective attention gives the visit its comic human scale; the museum’s carefully assembled variety does not dictate what its visitors will value.

The boys also encounter Chinese and other curiosities, along with historical relics from the Netherlands. They look soberly at the local objects, yet are secretly proud to show them to Ben. In this brief moment, the collections become part of a shared account of national history: the museum places Dutch relics beside objects from abroad, while the visitors’ differing interests reveal how one building can serve as gallery, cabinet, and meeting point between curiosity and cultural memory.