‘Die Vorliebe der Niederländer für helle, freundliche Zimmer’. Oldenburg stuccowork in the Netherlands between 1775 and 1925

Abstract

‘Dutchmen like light, representative interiors’, according to several Germans in the nineteenth century. They referred to the taste in living of above-average citizens. Evidently, there was a preference for white, sometimes also for bright colours. In the period 1775-1925 more than a thousand Oldenburg plasterers earned a living from the taste of Dutch citizens. The farmer’s son J.B. Logeman (1748-1814) from Oldenburg was the first. In Amsterdam he learned the plasterer’s craft and was quite successful in the Northern Netherlands and Germany. This inspired people from the same regions. What they made, who commissioned them, how they worked and where, varies during three sub-periods between 1775 and 1925.

High-quality craftsmanship characterizes Oldenburg stuccowork in the pioneering phase from 1775 to 1825. For instance, Logeman contributed to the spread of neo-classicism in the Northern Netherlands. He obtained his exclusive position because of the demand for stuccowork among the private and public elite, and through exceptional instruments such as exclusive rights and building fraud. The artistic craft was a steppingstone for the niches in the free regional markets during the subsequent period.

Between 1825 and 1875 the Oldenburg craftsmen supplied good-quality interiors as well as exterior walls at a good price, chiefly designed according to the current taste. The formula for success in a time of small economic margins – here industrialization had not broken through yet – was the smoothly running cooperation between emigrant and seasonal worker. The emigrant, who often married a Dutch woman, obtained commissions through the local network and organized the stream of seasonal workers from his native region in such a way that the demand for custom-made stuccowork, varying per season, was provided for. In the course of the nineteenth century a lot of ornamental cast stuccowork was applied in the houses of above-average citizens. This had to be cleaned and whitewashed regularly because of the build-up of soot caused by stoves.

When industrialization broke through in the Netherlands, migration from Oldenburg declined with ups and downs. The market for stuccowork grew during the period 1875-1925, wages increased and more Dutchmen became plasterers, but the Oldenburg entrepreneurs were scarcely active in revolutiebouw (jerry building) and lost position due to the tenders, which were practised on a larger scale. At that time Oldenburg stucco workers already found well-paid work in Germany more frequently. In the Netherlands the demand also changed. Washable wallpaper, which was produced in a mechanized process from 1875 onwards, was cheaper to purchase and maintain than stuccowork. Moreover, oil paint obtained a larger share in the finishing.

The emigrants and their descendants remained active as established plasterers’ companies, but they integrated fully in the Netherlands trade organizations. The Oldenburg tradition started in Amsterdam and Groningen and spread in many regions north of the large rivers. In the period 1775-1925 these Lutheran craftsmen did not go to the South, where the Roman-Catholic tradition was dominant.

Since 2010 the author has registered personal data and works of Oldenburg plasterers in the Netherlands. For his research he requests readers to report plasterers with German names who worked in the Netherlands between 1775 and 1925. It is quite likely that they were of Oldenburg origin.