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PrintMy Contribution in Dating and Documenting
Frits Sauvé, Diemen, April 2013
Introduction by Ali Fujino
From Discourse 14
Everything has a history. Such is the case with the world’s oldest WESTERN kite. This kite came to the Drachen Foundation in 2007, on loan from Peter Lynn of New Zealand. Peter purchased the kite from the owner of Vlieger Op, a kite shop in the Netherlands. In Seattle, the kite was analyzed by paper conservator Deborah Bede and she sug- gested that the handwritten date on its sail, of 1773, was perhaps correct.
In 2008, Thom Shanken (a specialist of Ameri- cana) came from the East Coast and spent three days analyzing its composition. Needing to know more about the kite, Thom returned in 2010 with technical photographer David Tuttle. David and Thom wanted to study the kite further and a col- laborative effort with researcher and historical kite restorer, Frits Sauvé of the Netherlands be- gan. This is Frits’s study.
Please note that the research is not complete. There are still many things to know about this kite’s past. Thom and Dave are contemplating their next approach. Stay tuned.
Truth or Wish?
Front view Back view – vertical spar taken out
Note 1:
I must inform the reader that my native language is Dutch. I learned English at school and I use it in my professional life almost every working day. Still, it is without any doubt that for native English readers it will be obvious that this report is written by a foreigner. I do not apologize for spelling and grammar errors; I simply ask the reader not to be concerned by this. It’s the content that counts.
Note 2:
I have never had the opportunity to have the kite in my hand and observe the different elements of its material and construction. That is not common with the way I usually work when documenting a kite. This might be of influence in my findings.
Many thanks to:
Drachen Foundation, Thom Shanken Smithsonian Institution, Speelkaartenmuseum, Hans van Duren playcardscollector, John Verheij editor magazine Vlieger, Kadaster, Alexander Sauvé doctor in Dutch language history University Leiden.
Preface
In the summer of 2002 I visited the Tropenmuseum. The Tropenmuseum is an Anthropological museum in Amsteram founded in 1864. We have visited this museum many times when the children were young. In 2002 the museum had an exposition about kites. The main subject was kites and its culture showing many kites from different countries and explaining their traditional purpose. A part of the exhibition showed kites from Western-Europe and some history related to this. In one of the corners a flat kite behind glass in a wooden frame was shown. The text underneath “Old Dutch Kite”. That was all. At that time I did not know nor realize I looked at the kite that is now in 2013 described as the oldest known kite in the world. And I certainly did not realize the kite would cross my path again in a search to get some related questions answered. Relevant questions to date and to document the kite in a correct way.
Kite on display in Tropenmuseum Amsterdam 2002
The road travelled
The kite was discovered by one of the employees of a construction company. This company was renovating a house in the inner-city of Leiden in The Netherlands. The house was and still is located at Breestraat 127/129. The building has now a bookstore on street level, 3 floors above this store of which the upper is an attic floor. The renovation took place in 1985. Part of the renovation was renewing the wooden floor. The carpenter working on the floor was breaking down the attic floor and found a framed piece of paper, recognizable as a kite. He put the kite aside and by the end of the day he handed the kite over to another employee of the construction company Cas Heeneman. The carpenter knew Cas Heeneman has kite flying as a hobby. Cas Heeneman lived in The Hague and bought his kite building material from the kiteshop VliegerOp. Cas Heeneman stored the kite in his house not realizing it was old and had an historical value. Stumbling over it after a couple of months and realizing he had no real purpose for the kite, he decided to give it to Gerard van der Loo, the owner of the kiteshop VliegerOp.
That was in the spring of 1986. The kite was not sold, it was handed over with no payment in money. It is likely to assume that Cas Heeneman received kite building material instead, since he had no knowledge of the old kite and he was eager to build his own new kites with some free material from the shop. I have the same experience with Gerard van der Loo who once offered me kite building material as payment.
Gerard van der Loo was more familiar with kites and its history and recognized the kite as a pear top kite model. From old pictures of children playing he knew this model was very well known and used in the Netherlands. The pear top kite model is most likely developed in The Netherlands. What he did not know was the exact age of the kite and he certainly did not realize the date could go back to the 18th century.
Gerard van der Loo wanted the kite to be stored in a more proper way and had it framed in a wooden frame behind glass. The story goes this was done by the Textielmuseum in Tilburg. Looking at the material used – no acid free boards – it is most likely to assume it was framed by a local framing shop in The Hague. One you can find many of. There is also not a specific reason to ask Textielmuseum to get involved since the kite is a paper kite and not made of cloth. From June till September 1993 a kite exhibition was on display in Textielmuseum in Tilburg. This framed pear top kite was not in the exhibition. I am sure, since I visited this exhibition myself. Therefore we know the kite was not framed by the Textielmuseum.
The kite in its framework was put against a wall in the backoffice of the shop of VliegerOp. Besides the exhibition in Amsterdam in 2002 it was not removed from the spot.
After a period of illness Gerard van der Loo passed away in 2003. Shortly after that the shop was sold to a new owner. This new owner was at that time confronted with the first signs of a shrinking market for kite builders and single line kites. Kite surfing was hot at that time and internet shops for kite material were fast growing. He had to change the business of the shop and one of the many changes he made was to take out the “old” stuff. Because Peter Lynn was an important supplier of kites and kite material for the shop and Peter knew the kite was going to be removed he decided to buy it. How it came to the sales to Peter Lynn I do now know and for what amount it was bought is also not known to me. The kite was handed over to Peter Lynn 2003/2004.
From Peter Lynn the kite came into hands of Drachen Foundation and shortly after that it went to Smithsonian Institution for correct conservation and investigation. Projectleader and expert historican Thom Shanken has done much of the investigations of the kite itself together with Drachen Foundation.
Kite description
It is up to Drachen Foundation and Smithsonian Institution to give a professional and in-depth detailed description of the kite, its material and the writing on the kite. In this report I limit myself to a very short summary.
Shape: pear top flat kite model with tail. Height: 930mm Width: 625 mm
Cover: blue rugged paper Frame: wood
Decoration: all in orange – red paper. On the upper section 2 six pointed David stars with Celtic knot. Underneath these stars are 2 antlered stags facing each other towards the middle. Across the bottom 8 dancing maids. Around all edges triangular chain decorations.
Bridle: 2 point bridle lines on upper and lower end of the central vertical spar.
Back: Text written under the left 3 maids with a pencil: 1773 – hereunder RB – hereunder TB.
The tail
The tail has 87 folded pieces of paper. Like common for paper kites the tailpieces are taken from rectangular pieces rolled up lengthwise and tight to the tail in the middle of the rolled up paper.
It is a tail made by different kind of pieces of paper. This fact adds to the fact it is home made from material available at that time. The details are 50 pieces made from unwritten blank paper or show remaining of blank paper (parts of tailpieces are lost)
17 pieces are made from playing cards
1 piece made from unwritten blue paper 14 pieces are pieces from book pages
5 pieces are handwritten white paper
The tail complete with all 87 pieces of paper
The playing cards:
The cards with points are difficult to date. The technique to make them shows they are made in The Netherlands. Printed on layered paper with 3 layers of this paper of a good clean quality. After printing the colors were put in by hand with a template. This technique was learned from the Dutch from France play cards makers. It can be dated between 1700 – 1750. (note: play cards of this quality were used to repair books, due to their durability and stiffness)
Tailpiece 23 shows a King of Hearts. Tailpiece 25 shows a Jack of Diamonds.
Number 23 shows the text JULES CESAR – dates back to 1710 – 1720 / for sure older than 1750.
Number 25 is identified as a card called Flemish double picture that dates back to 1710 -1720; for sure older than 1750.
Playing cards were in use in higher classed families. It is not strange to assume the kite builder used some cards of an incomplete deck. If so, the building date of 1773 comes very close by. If the kite was made in – let’s say – 1900, a play cards deck from 1750 would be considered as a valuable piece of history and certainly not used as tailpieces for a kite. This underlines the possibility the kite has actually been built in 1773.
The Printed pages:
The pages are clearly identified of pages from a book called:
JANI TEMPLUM CHRISTO NASCENTE RESERATUM written by JOANNE MASON, M.A. Printed in
Rotterdam in 1700. It is a religious book on changes in the church. These kind of books were printed in serials of 600 – 700 pieces. The book would have been read, or at least bought, by those who could read and/or wanted to have a copy of it in their library.
The text is in old Latin. For those interested it can be read on internet:
http://books.google.nl/books?id=TBhBIY_LcmQC&printsec=frontcover&hl=nl&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
The book must have had no value when the kite was made. Maybe it was no longer needed, maybe damaged or otherwise became useless. Why else tear the pages out for a kite. Again, if the kite was made in 1900 the book would have been too value to be used as kite tail. This underlines the possibility the kite has actually been built in 1773.
Book pages as tailpieces
The handwritten pieces
The 5 handwritten pieces of paper are too small in numbers to bring them together and figure out what was the letter telling us. On one of the tailpieces it is clearly written the text DECEMBER ANNO 1772.
On other pieces I can also read the Dutch words for REMARKABLE, HOPING, LAND, PATHS, HIGH THROUGH THE… This tells me nothing of the content.
Using an old letter from a year ago (kite building date 1773 – letter written December 1772) as tailpieces for a kite is an acceptable action. This underlines the possibility the kite has actually been built in 1773.
Handwritten letter used as tailpiece
The Building
The building in which the kite was found is at Breestraat 127/129 in Leiden.
Store building with attic Breestraat 127/129 in Leiden
Getting in contact with the actual people living there failed. They are at the moment not at all interested in my research and are therefore not willing to show me the floor of the attic. Not that this would add anything to what is known now and written down in this report.
I decided to go back and do research in the archives of the Kadaster in Leiden. The Kadaster is a registration office where each and every building, house, office, piece of land, places of water or whatsoever are written down to its ownership. In the Kadaster files I can see that my house is registrated included the exact amount of square centimeters of land around the house. This could lead me to the house owner in 1773 and from there I might find initials of his children and see if they correspond with the initials RB and TB on the kite.
However, how accurate The Netherlands always has been in writing down and archiving everything that can be archived, up to the level one really wonders why, in this case the administration of ownership of houses started back in 1800. I was able to find registration of a mister ZAALBERG, who bought the complete house in the year 1800 for 20.000 Dutch Guilders. That is about USD 7.000. The document does not tell me who was the former owner.
Breestraat 127/129 is the inner town of Leiden
History of Pear Top Kites
I have collected some information the Pear Top kite itself. In several publications one can find the model and date it back to 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900. This in itself does not tell us anything on the building date of the kite itself. I did this research looking for similar decorations as found on the kite. I selected some of the many sketches I found and copied them into this report. Most of them speak for themselves.
Decoration around is similar in this New Year Card from 1814
Kite flying was a common play activity – The Netherlands 1750 – 1790 – bridle attachment is not at the top (!)
Painting from 1747 with a pear top kite showing the same decoration technique 45