Object data
cloth (relic), paper (letter)
relic: height 3 cm × width 3.5 cm
paper: height 25.5 cm
paper: width 21.2 cm
T.T. Baart
Relic and Letter
Netherlands, 1831
Inscriptions
- inscription, on the back of the letter: Luit. E.A. Van Vloten / Stoomboot Antwerpen VERSPYCK
Provenance
...; Lieutenant E.A. van Vloten, 2 February 1831;1...; Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, January 1868;2 transferred to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-1410
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Piece of blue cloth folded in a letter.
The letter is dated and signed T.T. Baart, who secretly sent this piece of cloth to Lieutenant E.A. van Vloten, despite the displeasure of his superiors in Amsterdam at not having received the remains of Van Speyk’s uniform intact. The piece of cloth was added as a relic to the Navy Model Room in 1868.
Lieutenant Jan van Speyk (1802-1831) died in action on the River Scheldt near Antwerp, blowing up his ship and sacrificing himself rather than having it captured by the Belgian enemy. For this he was worshipped in the Netherlands as a hero.3 Many relics, paintings and other objects relating to Van Speyk are scattered across various museum collections in the Netherlands.4
Literature
J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1410; S. de Vries, De lucht in gevlogen, de hemel in geprezen. Eerbewijzen voor Van Speyk, Haarlem 1988; M.A. van Alphen, ‘Van Speyk. Trendsetter of trendvolger?’, in M. Ebben et al. (eds.), Alle streken van het kompas. Maritieme geschiedenis in Nederland, Zutphen 2010, pp. 53-71; G. van der Ham, De geschiedenis van Nederland in 100 voorwerpen, Amsterdam 2013, pp. 340-44; R.B. Prud’homme van Reine, Liever niet de lucht in. De omstreden zelfmoordaanslag van Jan Carel van Speijk, Amsterdam 2016
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'T.T. Baart, Relic and Letter, Netherlands, 1831', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.245214
(accessed 13 November 2024 06:50:28).