The Nationaal Glasmuseum Leerdam has a unique and richly varied collection of glass and crystal. The collection is made up of so-called handicraft glass and utility glass. During the last couple of years the Nationaal Glasmuseum, in combination with the Instituut Collectie Nederland and supported by the Mondriaan Stichting, the VSB Fonds, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and the Gravin van Bylandtstichting, has let Pictura digitize the collection. Soon the entire collection will be unlocked through the website. On-site Photography
The enormous collection of glass objects – 7000 in all – was photographed by several photographers from Pictura. This way, they could keep working at high speeds. All glass objects were photographed on site. For this, the glass had to be cleaned first. This delicate job was done by volunteers of the museum. Afterwards everything was inventoried so each object could be provided with a description. Only the dinner sets were photographed together because that looked better in the overview. The glass and crystal objects were placed on a light table with little reflection so that it remained possible to look through the transparent objects. Everything was cropped in the same proportions: 4:5. This results in a beautiful and tranquil overview of the collection. Topview allows you to zoom in on the images up to A0 size. Design and working drawings
The 40,000 design and working drawings in the archive of the museum have been digitized. Design and working drawings (in copy) have been recorded with a number so they can be reproduced precisely. This creates a complete overview for each designer. All of this can be found on the website of the Nationaal Glasmuseum with a simple description. Negatives
Finally, all the 15,000 negatives from the photographers of the Glasmuseum have been scanned. Some negatives date from before the First World War. After all negatives were scanned, they were repackaged and numbered. The negatives are all linked to contact prints that enable you to see which designer made them. This way all the negatives are made accessible. All catalogues of the Nationaal Glasmuseum Leerdam and Maastricht have been scanned and are on display in the book viewer. The descriptions will be completed by experts in the coming years. |
