Private lounge

The family could gather together in the private salon. The walls are covered with authentic toile de Jouy designed by artist Jean-Baptiste Huet. The former residents used to eat small meals in the dinette or small dining room. The display case contains all kinds of treasures: punch spoons, sprinkling spoons and the “birth spoon” of Trintje Dirks Verwerda, born on 7 October 1772. There are also several snuff boxes, including one in silver and mother-of-pearl, a masterpiece made around 1750 by the Ghent silversmith Gyselinck with engravings by Norhert Heylbrouck. The round box in filigree work is a mouches box. Mouches were small pieces of paper originally intended to mask smallpox scars, but in the 18th century they were worn by both men and women as beauty spots. In front of the mouches box lies the collar of the Carton family dog.