December 23, 2013

Look behind 94 gables of KLM’s Delftware houses

Filed under: Architecture,History by Branko Collin @ 10:43 am

sterke-verhalen-mark-zegelingLast October Mark Zegeling published a book called Sterke Verhalen voor bij de Borrel (tall tales to drink to) in which he explores the houses that KLM’s famous Delftware replicas are based on.

Dutch airline KLM gives away small Delftware bottles (produced in Hong Kong) to its business class passengers on long-haul flights. These bottles are shaped like classic Dutch houses and filled with jenever. So far 94 of them have been produced and now someone has written an extensive book on the history of the real houses that form the basis of KLM’s gifts.

Bol.com describes the book as follows: “[it] combines the best anecdotes and tallest tales about the life behind those gables. […] It discusses William of Orange’s closest friends, Rembrandt’s sales techniques, Mata Hari’s bed, a golden treasure in a garden and human fat as a miracle cure. […] Illustrated using more than 1,700 photos and paintings from various museums.”

The book appears to be self-published and is available, amongst others, from the author’s website.

Earlier we wrote about a KLM website which also tells the story of the airliner’s Delftware houses, although the site does so (from what I can tell) in less detail than the book.

Tags: , , , , , ,

April 30, 2012

Queen’s Day 2012

Filed under: General,Literature,Music by Branko Collin @ 9:00 pm

Orangemaster and I celebrated Queen’s Day together today, as we so often do, and we even brought friend and blogger Jeroen Mirck along to share in the fun of hunting for literature and music on what surely must be the greatest garage sale in the world.

Just walking around our neighbourhood took us hours, but it paid off in books and singles and CDs.

Until yesterday every day of the year had been either cold or overcast, today Amsterdam was bathed in sunlight and warmth, which made up for the entire dreary month of April in my view.

Here’s a very short photo impression, more should show up on our Flickr account in a few hours.

Update: I have uploaded the Queen’s Day set to Flickr.

Tags: , , , , , ,