Zes juwelen in twee cartouches 1650 - 1709

Daniel de Lafeuille created this print of six jewels within two cartouches in the Netherlands, sometime around the turn of the 18th century. Prints like this one reveal the close ties between art and commerce. Jewelers could have used such designs as templates or simply as advertisements for their craft. The highly ornamented frames suggest that the jewels themselves were as much aesthetic objects as financial assets, displayed for their beauty and value. The Dutch Republic at this time was a hub of international trade and the rising merchant class fueled a booming market for luxury goods and decorative arts. Through institutions such as the Dutch East India Company, the Netherlands controlled trade routes that spanned the globe. If you want to understand more about the relationship between the jewelry trade and Dutch power in this period, you could check out the Rijksmuseum’s extensive collection of prints and drawings, as well as historical records from the Dutch East India Company.