“Along the top of this rare old piece of furniture was suspended a row of porcelain plates. About the room were curiously carved and designed chairs and tables, some of the latter finely inlaid; and on the wall I particularly noticed mirrors with tortoiseshell frames. The waning light left us too little time to examine the contents of the room in detail, but we all thought it the choicest thing of the kind we had ever seen in public or private.”
In a study of Dutch furniture the canal boat should not be overlooked. More than two centuries ago an English traveller asked if there were not more people living on the water in Holland than on the land. In that country canals lead from town to town and village to village, and boats perform transport service. Vegetables, fruits, flowers and dairy produce, flour and all kinds of merchandise are transported in boats; furniture is moved from house to house by means of the canal boats, and passengers are also carried.
Many families know no other home than the _trekschuyt_: cradled on the drowsy waters the inmates grow to manhood and womanhood, and die in these floating homes.
The traveller in Holland never fails to be interested in the canal boats that are constantly arriving and departing in the _grachten_ of the large cities; but he rarely sees their interiors. The following description by Alphonse Esquiros shows how these canal homes are furnished, and gives us an idea of the life spent there:
“Along nearly the whole length, which is about thirty feet, runs a box or wooden house, frequently painted green; the roof, on which the sailors walk to perform sundry operations, being covered with a layer of pounded cockle shells. This house is divided into two compartments or cabins; the larger one, situated near the prow, is common to passengers and luggage. Here, during the winter, the worthy people, shut up as in a box, swim along in a cloak of tobacco smoke, which relieves the tedium of the voyage. In summer the wooden shutters are removed, and the hatch is raised from the orifice by which the travellers descend. The second compartment is the cabinet, called in Dutch the _roef_, which is entered through folding doors. The second cabin is small, but fitted up with some degree of taste. The windows, four or six in number, are glazed and have red or white curtains, according to the season. In the centre is a table with a copper vessel containing fire, and another smaller one to receive cigar ash, both cleaned and polished in a manner only found in Holland. Add to this, to complete the furniture, a mat, a looking-glass, and, in winter for the ladies, a foot-warmer, called the _stoef_, containing a small earthenware vessel with two or three lumps of lighted peat in it. Along two sides of this cabin run cushioned benches, on which the travellers sit down opposite to each other. Sometimes there are on a shelf a few volumes belonging to the boat and forming a floating library at the service of the studious passengers. The whole national character is revealed in this simple and minute attention to comfort. At the bows, the space not occupied by the cabinet is filled with merchandise, bales, and barrels; while the poop is left to travellers who wish to take the fresh air, and the helmsman, who steers and smokes the while with the regularity of a steamer....