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Jan Adam Kruseman, 1771: Willem II (1792-1849), Koning der Nederlanden
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Fish Beads

Material: The substance or substances out of which a thing is or can be made. Material is our world and day in day out we find new contents and forms and shapes. This week in the news was the curious discovery that in the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer the girl wears no pearl at all. Astronomer and visual artist Vincent Icke comes to this conclusion in the December issue of New Scientist. In the renewed Mauritshuis in The Hague it is one of the most famous paintings of Johannes Vermeer. A girl gazes out from the canvas from under a blue-yellow headscarf. Her look is as enchanting as it is mysterious. From her ear hangs a shimmering piece of jewellery. But is this really a pearl? 

Posted 23 December 2014

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The NRC wrote: “Vincent Icke, Professor of Theoretical Astronomy at Leiden University, thinks not. Art and science are two worlds between which many people do not see a link directly,” he says. The doubt is caused by reflections that are visible in the ear jewellery. Icke thinks that it is silver or perhaps polished tin, or even lacked glass.

I think it can also be the same pearl as in the Dutch crown. In the Netherlands is the new king or queen is not crowned but inaugurated and the crown has only a supporting role. It is a refined prop as a symbol of the sovereign power and because it has no leading role, in 1840 Willem II chose for gold-plated silver with cut glass and imitation pearls with a layer of fish scales.

Fischsilber (Silberglanz)
Fish Silver beads exist as glass spheres, on whose inside wall fish scales have been applied and filled with wax as a kind of wax pearls.  Inside the hollow glass sphere with a mixture of fish silver and glue (so-called pearl essence) and then filled with wax, known as Bourguignon pearl or fish bead. Especially made in Paris, Strasbourg, Schwäbisch Gmünd; Vienna, Venice, Lauscha, etc in the 18th and 19th centuries. Fish silver was also used for the iridescent and pearl-like effect in painting’

AvdB

Read the review on the book WAYS TO MODERNISM: Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, and Their Impact>

Fish scales to manufacture pearls
©Technisches Museum Wien

   
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