Sara Rothé was an 18th century art collector from the Northern Netherlands, known today as the former owner of two dollhouse

Dollhouse

A dollhouse is a toy home, made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. The term dollhouse is common in the United States and Canada...

s now on display in the Frans Hals Museum

Frans Hals Museum

The Frans Hals Museum is a hofje and municipal museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. The museum was founded in 1862 in the newly renovated former cloister located in the back of the Haarlem city hall known as the Prinsenhof...

 and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

The Municipal Museum is an art museum, located in The Hague, Netherlands.The museum was built by the Dutch architect H.P. Berlage. It is renowned for its large Mondrian collection, the largest in the world...

.

Biography

In the early 18th century, Amsterdam's canal houses were home to a multitude of curiosity cabinets, and one type that was often kept by women, was the "miniature house", a dollhouse based on the owner's own house in real life, and which often included miniature books, art objects, and furniture items from chamber pots to garden fountains. Such dollhouses were meant for show rather than play, and visitors from all over the Netherlands and beyond would come to Amsterdam to visit such "cabinets". Sara Rothé was a dollhouse owner who spent most of her time on decorating and showing her cabinet. She was herself a very good embroiderer and embroidered most of the cloth furnishings in the cabinet. According to a book produced by the museum, she kept two dollhouses, which she was constantly improving, and a large improvement was achieved when she bought three dollhouses for 1,000 guilders, which were advertised for auction on April 2, 1743 in the Amsterdamse Courant. Two of these had been the dollhouses of Cornelia van der Gon, the wealthy widow of Adriaan Dortsman

Adriaan Dortsman

Adriaan Dortsman , was a Dutch Golden Age architect of Amsterdam.-Biography:According to the RKD he moved to Amsterdam in 1667 and is known for drawings and architectural designs...

 who later married the artist David van der Plas

David van der Plas

-Biography:David van der Plas became famous as a portrait painter, and his most illustrious patron was Cornelis Tromp. In 1684 he married Cornelia van der Gon of Haarlem, the daughter of the castellan of the Oude Doelen, the meeting quarters of the Haarlem schutterij...

. It was Van der Plas who painted many dollhouse decorations for his wife and others. Today part of the dollhouse and some of the furnishings can be traced back to Cornelia van der Gon.

Two dollhouses for two homes

The houses in miniature that Sara Rothé created were probably based on her house in Amsterdam, Keizersgracht 474, and her summer home or "buitenplaats

Buitenplaats

A buitenplaats was a summer residence for rich townspeople in the Netherlands. During the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, many traders and city administrators in Dutch towns became very wealthy...

" called "Klein Berkenrode" which was located on what is today the Rijksstraatweg in Haarlem.
Sara Rothé died in an accident when her coach fell into the Haarlemmertrekvaart

Haarlemmertrekvaart

The Haarlemmertrekvaart is a canal between Amsterdam and Haarlem in the province of North Holland, the Netherlands. It was dug in 1631, making it the oldest tow-canal in Holland...

 near Halfweg when she was travelling from her summer home in Haarlem to Halfweg to pick up her husband who left the city to join her there. Though she, her husband, and two visitors were with her in the coach at the time, and two trekschuit

Trekschuit

Trekschuit, literal translation 'tugboat', is an old style of horse-drawn boat specific to the Netherlands where it was used for centuries as a means of passenger traffic between cities along trekvaarten, or tow-canals.-History:...

s came quickly to the rescue, she drowned because it was too difficult to pull her out.

Though Sara and her husband were not considered members of the top elite, they were quite wealthy, as evidenced from the fact that their home in Haarlem was sold in 1761 to Albertus Hodshon, the father of the wealthy Cornelia Hodson, who later built the building housing the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen

Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen

The Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen , located on the east side of the Spaarne in downtown Haarlem, Netherlands, was established in 1752 and is the oldest society for the sciences in the coutnry. The society has been housed in its present location, called Hodshon Huis, since...

 today.

See also

• The other dollhouse that belonged to Sara Rothé is kept in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
  Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
  The Municipal Museum is an art museum, located in The Hague, Netherlands.The museum was built by the Dutch architect H.P. Berlage. It is renowned for its large Mondrian collection, the largest in the world...
  
  
• The Rijksmuseum
  Rijksmuseum
  The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or simply Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history. It has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art...
  
   has three dollhouses, including one assembled by Petronella Oortman, who like Sara, lived in Amsterdam on the Warmoesstraat
  Warmoesstraat
  Warmoesstraat is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam, running parallel to the river Amstel from Amsterdam Centraal railway station to Dam Square. Its origins are in the 13th century. In the 16th and 17th century it was the shopping street...