The Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics has received financial support from the Colonial Collections Consortium and the Municipality of Leeuwarden, enabling further provenance research into the extensive collection of non-ceramic Indonesian objects historically associated with the Princessehof.
.jpg?width=600&height=763&mode=crop&converttowebp=1 "Kaart verz. Anne Tjibbes van der Meulen #2")
The history of the Princessehof is inextricably linked to notary and passionate collector Nanne Ottema (1874–1955). In 1917, Ottema was granted access to Het Princessehof as a museum building for his collections. Initially, he envisioned the museum as a place for applied arts in the broadest sense, but over the years the focus shifted. Ottema’s aim became to turn it into an institution specialized in ceramics. The other collections found homes in different museums. One non-ceramic subcollection, however, remained part of the museum’s permanent display for a long time: the collection of "Indische kunst" (Indonesian art). This collection was assembled in a colonial context, and in 2024, the museum began research into the provenance of these objects.
The collection comprises approximately 1.800 inventory numbers and is highly diverse in nature. Most regions of Indonesia (then known as the Dutch East Indies) are well represented, with a wide range of objects: from textiles to wayang puppets, and from temple fragments to weapons. The collection is largely owned by the Municipality of Leeuwarden (in some cases by the Ottema Kingma Foundation) and has been on long-term loan to the Princessehof. However, the objects have not been part of the museum's display for decades. Most of the collection was on (sub)loan to the Gerardus van der Leeuw Museum, and after its closure, to the University Museum in Groningen. Several dozen objects are on loan to the National Museum of World Cultures, and a small part of the collection is stored in the depot of the Princessehof. Due to the collection’s limited use in recent decades, it is relatively unknown today. The museum now intends to deaccession this group of objects and find a more suitable home for them elsewhere.
In 2024, initial steps were taken in provenance research. The collection was first mapped out, and various specialists in Indonesian material culture provided insights and context. Subsequently, an intern from the Master's program in Restitution Studies at the University of Amsterdam, under the guidance of the Princessehof’s curators, identified possible provenance paths and former owners. From this preliminary study, it was found that for 22 of the 100 former owners, there is a strong likelihood of reconstructing the provenance history in more detail. With financial support from the Colonial Collections Consortium and the Municipality of Leeuwarden, further research into several of these former owners is now possible. This follow-up provenance research will begin in September 2025 and will run for 10 months.
On this page, an object list will be shared in the fall of 2025, along with published research findings.
