Object data
brass, wood and mica
height 170.5 cm × diameter 34 cm
Enthoven & Co.
Model of a Lighthouse
The Hague, c. 1879
Inscriptions
- inscription, above the door: ONDER DE REGERING VAN / Z.M. WILLEM III/ KONING DER NEDERLANDEN / ENZ: ENZ: ENZ: / OPGERIGT VOOR DRAAILICHT / EERSTE GROOTE / 1879 P. LEEMANS
- inscription, on the back: L.I. Enthoven & Co / ’s GRAVENHAGE / 1879
Scientific examination and reports
- X-radiography: Marije Meddeler, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 2013
Conservation
- Ab Hoving, March 2012: top reconstructed; weathervane resoldered
- Marije Meddeler, 2013: cleaned; revarnished
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-1412
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Brass model of the lighthouse of Vlakkenhoek on Sumatra, on a wooden pedestal.
The model has sixteen sides, a door and thirty-two windows plus one facing the other side of the door. Above the door and the extra window the inscriptions are placed. The lighthouse has nineteen storeys including the top. Part of the wall near the base is left out to show the interior with stairs. The top has a dome-shaped roof with a weathervane shaped as an arrow.
The lighthouse of Vlakkenhoek on the south-west corner of Sumatra was built by the firm Enthoven & Co. in The Hague from 1878 to 1879 and was made entirely of cast iron. Cast iron lighthouses for the Dutch East Indies were shipped in parts from the Netherlands to be assembled on the spot. The strength of the construction was demonstrated by this lighthouse of Vlakkenhoek, which survived the Krakatoa eruption and resulting tidal waves easily, while everything surrounding it was swept away.
Scale (estimate) approx. 1:35.
Literature
J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1412; Encyclopedie Nederlands Indië, s.l. 1918, vol. 2, p. 494; W. Steffens, Kort overzicht uit de geschiedenis der bebakening van vaarwaters, reeden, enz. in den O.I. archipel, s.l. 1926; L. Crommelin and H. van Suchtelen, Nederlandse vuurtorens. Bouw en organisatie, Nieuwkoop 1978, pp. 44-46; H. Stevens (ed.), The Art of Technology: The Navy Model Collection in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/Wormer 1995, pp. 68-71; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 232-33; M. Meddeler, Bouwmodel of pronkstuk? De besluitvorming en de behandeling van het model van de vuurtoren te Vlakkenhoek (Sumatra) vervaardigd uit messing, mica en hout, 2 vols., Amsterdam 2013, manuscript in RMA, inv. no. 747 C 5-6; G. van der Ham, De geschiedenis van Nederland in 100 voorwerpen, Amsterdam 2013, pp. 384-88; J. van der Vliet, ‘Nieuw licht op een oud vuurtorenmodel’, Scheepshistorie 17 (2014), pp. 104-09; H. Stevens, Bitter Spice: Indonesia and The Netherlands from 1600, Amsterdam 2015, pp. 66-81 (published in Dutch as Gepeperd verleden. Indonesië en Nederland sinds 1600)
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Enthoven & Co., Model of a Lighthouse, The Hague, c. 1879', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.245216
(accessed 14 May 2024 19:44:46).