Blad met ornamenten, boot, wagen en wapen van Nederland 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this ornamented sheet with boat, carriage, and the Dutch Coat of Arms, but when is anybody’s guess. It’s like looking at a piece of ornate wallpaper, but one that whispers stories of nationhood and heraldry in muted beige. The thing that gets me is the texture, the feeling that the design is embedded into the very fiber of the paper. This is the kind of surface that invites touch, where the eye wants to explore every nook and cranny. Look closely at the Coat of Arms—the lines are crisp but soft, as if the image is both present and fading away. It reminds me a little of the pattern paintings of the 70s, maybe Joyce Kozloff, but rooted in something much older. There’s an ambiguity to it all. It's like a dream of Dutch symbols, never quite solid, always shifting.