by Mike Dash
Jacques de Gheyn Regteren Altena, Jacques de Gheyn, vol. 1, pp. 2–3, 14, 38, 40, 59, 66, 69–70, 131–32, 153.
Guillelmo van de Heuvel Leonhardt, Het Huis Bartolotti, pp. 14–15, 39–40; Israel, Dutch Republic, p. 348.
The Golden Age Price, Culture and Society in the Dutch Republic; Israel, Dutch Republic, pp. 547–91.
Dutch country houses Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 292–95; Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie, pp. 7, 27–28. Jokes in church Cotterell, Amsterdam, p. 119. The usual fine was six stuivers per joke.
Jacob Cats Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 211, 293, 437.
Lord Offerbeake’s garden Brereton, Travels in Holland, pp. 44–45.
“All these fools want …” English translation from Segal, Tulips Portrayed, p. 16.
Of de Moufe-schans Hondius, Dapes Inemptae. On the true ownership of the Moufe-schans, which is sometimes incorrectly said to have been Hondius’s own home, see Nieuw Nederlandsch Biographisch Woordenboek, vol. 8, pp. 812–13.
The prince of Orange’s garden Brereton, Travels in Holland, pp. 34–35.
Chapter 8. The Tulip in the Mirror
My discussion of Semper Augustus is based, as all such discussions must be, on the chronicle of Nicolaes Jansz. van Wassenaer. Van Wassenaer, the son of an Amsterdam physician, taught at the Latin School in Haarlem and then in Amsterdam before becoming a professional writer (and part-time physician) after 1612. His chronicle, Historisch Verhael aller Gedencwaerdiger Gheschiedenissen, 5–9 (Amsterdam: Iudocus Hondius and Jan Jansen, 1624–25), which is in general one of the most reliable available, is the principal source of information on the flower.
The passages on the progress of the tulip craze are based as before on the works of Krelage, supplemented by those of Nicolaas Posthumus, “Die speculatie in Tulpen in de Jaren 1636 en 1637,” parts 1–3, Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek 12 (1926), pp. 3–9; 13 (1927), pp. 1–85; 18 (1934), pp. 229–40; and “The Tulip Mania in Holland in the Years 1636 and 1637,” in W. C. Scoville and J. C. LaForce, eds., The Economic Development of Western Europe, vol. 2 (Lexington, Mass., 1969), and Peter Garber, “Tulipmania,” Journal of Political Economy 97 (June 1989), pp. 535–60. Information on Dutch gardens of the period is drawn from Paul Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962), and Simon Schama’s The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (London: Fontana, 1991).
Information on tulip books comes from Segal, Tulips Portrayed, and Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland. The Hortus Floridus of Chrispijn van de Passe has been the subject of some research; see Spencer Savage, “The ‘Hortus Floridus’ of Crispijn vande Pas,” Transactions of the Bibliographic Society, ser. 2, vol. 4 (1923), pp. 181–206, and Eleanour Rohde, Crispian Passeus’s “Hortus Floridus” (London, 1928–29). Savage’s English translation appeared in the 1970s: Hortus Floridus: The Four Books of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Flowers, Engraved by Crispin van de Pas (London: Minerva, c. 1974).
Adriaen Pauw Israel, Dutch Republic, pp. 159, 319, 458–59, 518–19, 522–33; and Boer et al., Adriaan Pauw, pp. 20–27. Today only a small portion of the Heemstede estate can still be seen; the rest has been swallowed up by Haarlem and now forms one of the southernmost suburbs of the city.
Pauw’s mirrored garden Wassenaer, Historisch Verhael, vol. 5, p. 40 and verso. It is possible that the Violetten variety Pauw, mentioned in Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, p. 138, was created by him or at least named for him.
Semper Augustus Wassenaer, Historisch Verhael, vol. 5, p. 40 verso and 41; vol. 7, p. 111 and verso; vol. 9, p. 10. See also Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 32–33, 68; Garber, “Tulipmania,” p. 537; Segal, Tulips Portrayed, pp. 8–9.
The ownership of Semper Augustus In recent years several authorities have confidently stated that the owner of Semper Augustus was none other than Adriaen Pauw, but they have not read van Wassenaer’s work carefully. In fact, although the chronicler did see specimens of the flower and did visit the garden at Heemstede, nowhere does he link the two, and the description he gives of Pauw’s single tulip bed makes it unlikely that Semper Augustus—a flower that any connoisseur would have planted in solitary splendor—would have been grown there.
Several unreferenced anecdotes suggest that other Semper Augustus bulbs were sold, but until they can be confirmed in contemporary records I would be reluctant to accept them at face value. Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, p. 65n, says that an Amsterdammer sold a Haarlemmer the flower on condition that neither would sell any further Semper Augustus bulbs without notifying the other first. The Amsterdam connoisseur later succumbed to the temptation of 3,000 guilders and a cabinet worth 10,000 guilders for a single bulb. When the Haarlemmer discovered this deception, he in turn sold three bulbs for 30,000 guilders. Similarly Munting, writing some thirty-five years after the mania, quoted an unreferenced bookkeeper’s entry that reads: “Sold to N.N., a Semper Augustus weighing 123 azen, for the sum of 4,600 florins. Above this sum a new and well-made carriage and two dapple gray horses with all accessories to be delivered within two weeks, the money to be paid immediately.” He also alleges a bulb was sold for 5,500 florins at public auction. See Munting, Naauwkeurige Beschryving, pp. 907–11.
Balthasar and Daniël de Neufville Gelder de Neufville, “De Oudste Generatics,” pp. 6–8; Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 129, 140. These varieties bore the corrupted name “de Novil.”
Tulip growers Hunger, Charles d’Ecluse, vol. 1, p. 241; vol. 2, p. 251.
Henrik Pottebacker Segal, Tulips Portrayed, p. 8; Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 127, 138.
Rhizotomi and apothecaries Hunger, Charles d’Ecluse, vol. 1, pp. 303–06; Krelage, Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport, p. 17. On the unreliability of apothecaries, see Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, pp. 73, 157.
The tulip as aphrodisiac Segal and Roding, De Tulp en de Kunst, p. 22. The contemporary English garden writer John Parkinson mentions the supposed aphrodisiac qualities of the flower in Paradisus Terrestris (1629), confessing however: “For force of Venereous quality, I cannot say … not having eaten many.” Quoted in Blunt, Tulipomania, pp. 10–11.
Actors in the early tulip trade: Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 11–15.
Gardens outside Haarlem Temmininck et al., Haarlemmerhout 400 Jaar, pp. 98–99.
Pieter Bol and Barent Cardoes Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, p. 42; Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, p. 356. Cardoes died late in 1657 (Haarlem Burial Registers 72, fol. 100), but the business he established was still in existence in the eighteenth century.
Francisco da Costa Unsurprisingly, da Costa’s business was a very sound one, and it survived the mania and continued until at least 1645. Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 42–43, 55; Krelage, “Het Manuscript over den Tulpenwindhandel,” p. 30.
Bulb exports Today fully two-thirds of Dutch bulbs are exported, and the largest single producer, Germaco, ships some 35 million bulbs a year overseas.
Emanuel Sweerts Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, p. 25.
Tulip books The earliest known flower book dates to 1603 and is French. Books portraying only tulips came into existence as the mania developed; the oldest of these dates to about 1635. See Segal and Roding, De Tulp en de Kunst, pp. 78–81; Segal, Tulips Portrayed, pp. 17–20; Taylor, Dutch Flower Painting, pp. 10–12.
Van Swanenburch’s tulip book This book is now in the Netherlands Economics History Archive in Amsterdam. The notes on prices appear to have been written by the book’s—anonymous—original owner.
Cos’s tulip book This manuscript, correctly titled Verzameling van een Meenigte Tulipaanen …, was made in 1637. (Oddly there do not seem to be any other records of a florist named Cos in the city archives, although Krelage does note the existence of a tulip variety named Kos.) It is now in the Universiteitsbibliotheek at Wageningen.
Tulip nomenclature Krela
ge, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 33–37, 128.
“If a change in a Tulip is effected …” Cited by Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” p. 24.
Traveling bulb sellers Pavord, Tulip, p. 153.
Chapter 9. Florists
The social history of the United Provinces during the Golden Age is ably dealt with by A. T. van Deursen, Plain Lives in a Golden Age: Popular Culture, Religion and Society in Seventeenth Century Holland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). Details of day-to-day life are added by Paul Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962). Among contemporary authors, the greatest authority was generally reckoned to be Sir William Temple, whose Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands did not, unfortunately, appear until 1673, well after the mania. This short book was nevertheless based on the author’s observations during visits dating back to 1652, and as Temple was for some time the English ambassador to the United Provinces and took a keen professional interest in the reasons for Dutch success, his work is far more thoughtful and analytical than the muddled impressions of travelers, as well as being considerably less superficial.
Physical description of the United Provinces Temple, Observations, pp. 95, 113–14; Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, p. 277; Israel, Dutch Republic, pp. 1–3, 9–14.
“An universall quagmire …” The Englishman was the propagandist Owen Felltham, and his work was published when Anglo-Dutch antagonism reached its peak in the middle of the seventeenth century. His views of the Dutch need to be seen in this context. Cited in Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, p. 44.
The English ambassador Temple, Observations, pp. 95, 113–14.
The classes of Dutch society Israel, Dutch Republic, pp. 330, 337–53, 630–38; Deursen, Plain Lives, pp. 4–8, 13, 32, 47–48, 194; Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, pp. 232–41; Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 19–21, 316, 579–81.
The working day Deursen, Plain Lives, pp. 5, 11; Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, pp. 5–6, 53.
Food Deursen, Plain Lives, pp. 4, 19–20, 82; Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 162–64, 169–70, 230; Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, pp. 67–74; Cotterell, Amsterdam, pp. 24, 48; Brereton, Travels in Holland, p. 6.
Cleanliness Deursen, Plain Lives, pp. 19, 41; Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, pp. 137–39, 169; Brereton, Travels in Holland, p. 68.
Population Israel, Dutch Republic, p. 328.
Baudartius and the pressure of overpopulation Deursen, Plain Lives, pp. 3–4, 8.
Spread of the fashion for gardening in the Netherlands Cotterell, Amsterdam, pp. 88, 131; Brereton, Travels in Holland, p. 38; Mundy, Travels of Peter Mundy, vol. 4, p. 75; Segal, Tulips Portrayed, p. 8; Bulgatz, Ponzi Schemes, p. 86.
Dutch savings Temple, Observations, p. 102.
The gambling impulse Deursen, Plain Lives, pp. 67–68, 105–06; Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 306–07, 347; Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, p. 76.
Chapter 10. Boom
The course of the mania is set out best in E. H. Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland: De Tulpomanie van 1636–37 en de Hyacintenhandel 1720–36 (Amsterdam, 1942). A general summary of events, with rather more interpretation, can be found in Nicolaas Posthumus, “The Tulip Mania in Holland in the Years 1636 and 1637,” in W. C. Scoville and J. C. LaForce, eds., The Economic Development of Western Europe, vol. 2 (Lexington, Mass., 1969), pp. 138–49.
Hoorn Israel, Dutch Republic, pp. 317–18.
The tulip house Damme, Aanteekeningen Betreffende, pp. 23–24. According to van Damme, the house was renovated in 1755, at which time the stone tulips were inscribed with some memorial to the mania. At some time in the 1880s or early 1890s, the house was demolished, and the tulips were purchased by J. H. Krelage, one of the leading tulip growers of Haarlem, and set in the wall of his library. Van Damme, incidentally, describes the chronicle from which he drew many of his details as Velius’s, but in fact Velius’s work runs no further than 1630. He must therefore have meant a continuation of the original chronicle. The reliability of this work is not entirely clear. From the context in which the chronicler mentions the tulip house it seems the passage may not be contemporary.
The development of the tulip mania Posthumus, “The Tulip Mania in Holland,” pp. 140–42; Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 42, 49–52.
A contemporary chronicler Aitzema, Saken van Staet en Oorlogh, p. 504. Like many of the prices cited by historians of the mania, van Aitzema’s seem to be drawn from the fictionalized Samenspraecken, three pamphlets published in 1637 that purported to record conversations between a tulip dealer and his friend. See chapter 11 for details.
Generael der Generaelen van Gouda Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 35, 49. Schama says that Gouda was one of the cheapest and least spectacular varieties, which is not correct.
Later prices quoted for Semper Augustus Ibid., pp. 32–33, 68; Garber, “Tulip-mania,” p. 537; Segal, Tulips Portrayed, pp. 8–9.
Soap See Israel, Dutch Republic, p. 347.
Land in Schermer polder; the merchant lover Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, p. 30, citing one of the pamphlets published during the mania.
Anecdotes of a sailor and an English traveler The story of the sailor is recorded by J. B. Schuppius as a memory of his youth in Holland, according to Solms-Laubach, Weizen und Tulpe, p. 76. It was famously retold in considerably embellished form in Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions, p. 92. Mackay tells the (unreferenced) story of the English traveler. Peter Garber has drawn attention to the fundamental implausibility of these anecdotes, see Garber, “Tulipmania,” p. 537 & n.
Dutch recession Israel, Dutch Republic, pp. 314–15.
Weavers Those who note the predominance of linen workers among the tulip maniacs include Posthumus, “Tulip Mania in Holland,” p. 143.
Sales by bulb and by the bed Ibid., p. 141.
Trades of Jan Brants and Andries Mahieu Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 13–14.
Sales between April and August All the early records of tulip trading are dated between April and August. Ibid., pp. 11–15; Posthumus, “Tulip Mania in Holland,” p. 141.
The windhandel Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 358–59.
The futures trade ’t Hart, Jonker, and Zanden, Financial History of the Netherlands, pp. 53–54; Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 339, 349–50; Vries and Woude, First Modern Economy, p. 151; Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 338–39; Zumthor, Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland, p. 262.
Bans on futures trading ’t Hart, Jonker, and Zanden, Financial History of the Netherlands, p. 55.
Trading by the ace Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 46–48.
Gerrit Bosch Alkmaar notarial archive, vol. 113, fol. 71vo–72vo, July 23, 1637 (copy in the Posthumus Collection, Netherlands Economic History Archive).
Profit on spice voyages Israel, Dutch Republic, p. 320.
David de Mildt Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 16.
Henrick Lucasz. and Joost van Haverbeeck Ibid., pp. 19–20.
Jan Admirael Ibid., pp. 17–18, 21–22.
The value of a bulb The best data come from the auction held at Alkmaar in February 1637, where several bulbs of the same variety, but of different weights, were sold to the same bidders in the course of a single day. See Damme, Aanteekeningen Betreffende, pp. 92–93.
Tulip companies Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 26, 32–36.
Bulbs per ace and per thousand aces See Damme, Aanteekeningen Betreffende, pp. 92–93.
They came from all walks of life Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1926), pp. 3–99.
Bulbs bought to plant and trade Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 24–25.
The Samenspraecken These three important pamphlets were reprinted in ibid., pp. 20–99. They have been discussed by Krelage in
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, pp. 70–73, and in De Pamfletten van den Tulpenwindhandel, pp. 2–4; and also by Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” pp. 25–27; Jacob, Tulips, pp. 10–12; Segal, Tulips Portrayed, pp. 13–15; Herbert, Still Life with a Bridle, pp. 57–58; and Schama, Embarrassment of Riches, pp. 359–60. None of these accounts, incidentally, agrees with any of the others on precisely how the information in the Samenspraecken should be interpreted, mute testimony to the remarkable obscurity of the text of the original pamphlets.
Payments in kind As noted, these examples too derive from the Samenspraecken. See Bulgatz, Ponzi Schemes, p. 97.
Aert Ducens Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 38. In 1643 van de Heuvel’s wife appeared before a notary and confirmed that this agreement had been canceled after the tulip market crashed.
Jeuriaen Jansz. Ibid., pp. 27–28. In this case the seller’s name is given as “Cresser,” but the records of the mania are full of misspelled surnames, and it is almost certainly Creitser who was meant.
Cornelis Guldewagen Ibid., pp. 61–65, 72–74.
Abraham de Goyer Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1934), pp. 231–32. Null and void Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 85.
Cases of deceit and fraud Segal, Tulips Portrayed, p. 12; Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” p. 25.
Everything that could be called a tulip Aitzema, Saken van Staet en Oorlogh, p. 504.
Chapter 11. At the Sign of The Golden Grape
My account of Dutch tavern life has been pieced together from numerous secondary sources, the most significant being those of van Deursen and Schama. The English travelers Moryson, Brereton, and Mundy all make some mention of the subject, and their personal experiences add color to the general remarks of the social historians. Haarlem’s brewing industry is described in S. Slive, ed., Frans Hals (The Hague: SDU, 1990). The taverns of Haarlem are touched on by S. Groenveld et al., Deugd Boven Geweld. Een Geschiedenis van Haarlem, 1245–1995 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1995), which is more rewarding than an English translation of its title (“Virtue Above Violence”) might suggest, and the brothels of the Haarlemmerhout are rather tentatively passed over by Temmininck et al. in the even more unenticingly titled Haarlemmerhout 400 Jaar. “Mooier is de Wereld Nergens.” (Haarlem: Schuyt & Co., 1984)—“400 Years of Haarlem Wood: ‘Nowhere in the World Is More Beautiful.’” Thankfully Geoffrey Cotterell’s anecdotal history Amsterdam: The Life of a City (Farnborough: D.C. Heath, 1973) adds some more entertaining details about the role that food and drink played in Dutch life.
