Carel Breytspraak sr., hofleverancier van Lodewijk Napoleon. De Breytspraak-meubelen uit de collectie van het Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam

In 1808, King Louis Napoleon had the town hall of Amsterdam converted to Royal Palace. Besides making the necessary architectural alterations, he ordered hundreds of pieces of furniture and other ornamental objects from local furniture makers, upholsterers, decorators and other suppliers. This collection of Empire furniture, which is still preserved in the palace, is today the largest of its kind outside France. Between 2005 and 2009, these pieces of furniture were restored as part of the wider restoration of the entire palace, a gigantic operation that involved hundreds of restoration experts. A furniture committee made sure that quality and looks remained uniform. During the process the restoration experts and researchers made a full study of the furniture, documenting finds and findings, supplemented with research into the origins, the makers, use, techniques and material. This is unique for the Netherlands. The data, recorded in documentation and restoration reports, offer fresh insights in especially the construction and manufacturing process of Dutch Empire furniture. The discoveries are illustrated by a number of purveyances by Carel Breytspraak Sr. (1769-1810), the best paid furniture maker of the king. The 100 chairs he made for the Grand dining room of the palace are an example of pre-modern serial production. This may be inferred from the varying quality of the wood that was used and from the varying thickness of the seat stretchers, among other things. Furthermore, it turned out that the chairs still had the original stuffing, which was reused after having been restored. One chair still had the original upholstery from the days of Louis Napoleon and this was used as the basis for the current upholstery. The chairs are typical examples of furniture made after French decoration prints, which were undoubtedly provided by the king’s architects. The roll-top desk that Breytspraak made for the king’s bedroom is one of the most unique pieces in the collection and is certainly not a mass product. Unlike with the chairs, the mahogany wood used here – mainly applied in mirrored fashion – is of a strikingly high quality. The desk is an example of previous restoration or maintenance efforts. For instance, the marble top as well as the fittings on the lower doors turned out not to be original. This has been remedied in this restoration campaign. Another set of furniture that suffered from previous activities is the corps de bibliothèque. A special aspect here is that for these bookcases – intended for the king’s library and topographical collection – we still have the contract between Breytspraak and the architect, which gives us insight into how the furniture maker was instructed. What is interesting is that Breytspraak was ordered to construct the bookcases in such a way that the shelves could be moved. He was also especially requested to give them a mahogany finish, in such a way that they would have the appearance of massive mahogany. Finally, some small pieces of furniture for the apartment of the crown prince (1809) demonstrate the versatility of Breytspraaks workshop. He produced several gueridons (tripod tables), constructed from a ‘wagon wheel’ carrying a marble top, with a column and a plinth on lion’s feet. These elements are fixed with an iron rod that can be tightened. Further research could provide more insight into the production process and the differences between the Dutch and French furniture.In 1808 liet koning Lodewijk Napoleon het stadhuis van Amsterdam veranderen in een koninklijk paleis. Naast de benodigde architecturale wijzigingen werden daartoe bij lokale meubelmakers, stoffeerders en andere leveranciers honderden meubelen en andere objecten gekocht. Nog altijd bewaard in het paleis vormt de collectie empire meubelen vandaag de grootste buiten Frankrijk. Tussen 2005-2009 zijn de meubelen gerestaureerd, als onderdeel van de grotere restauratie van het gehele paleis. Dit was een enorme operatie, waaraan honderden restauratoren meewerkten. Een meubelcommissie zag erop toe dat een uniforme kwaliteit en uiterlijk gewaarborgd bleef. Daarbij is door de restauratoren en onderzoekers integraal onderzoek verricht naar de meubelen. Vondsten en bevindingen gedaan tijdens de restauraties zijn genoteerd, aangevuld met onderzoek naar herkomst, makers, gebruik, technieken en materialen. Dit is een unicum in Nederland. De gegevens, vastgelegd in documentatie- en restauratierapporten, bieden nieuwe inzichten in vooral de constructie en productiewijze van Hollandse empire meubelen. Aan de hand van een aantal leveranties van Carel Breytspraak sr. (1769-1810), de best betaalde meubelmaker van de koning, worden de vondsten geïllustreerd. De 100 stoelen die Breytspraak leverde voor de Grote eetzaal van het paleis zijn een voorbeeld van vroegmoderne massaproductie. Dit is onder meer af te leiden uit de wisselende kwaliteit van het gebruikte hout en de wisselende dikte van zittingregels. De stoelen bleken bovendien de originele koeken te herbergen, die na restauratie hergebruikt zijn. Op één stoel werd de bekleding uit de tijd van Lodewijk teruggevonden. Die stond model voor de huidige bekleding van de stoelen. De stoelen zijn verder een voorbeeld van meubelen gemaakt naar voorbeeld van een Franse decoratieprent, ongetwijfeld geleverd door Lodewijks architecten. Het cilinderbureau dat Breytspraak vervaardigde voor de slaapkamer van de koning is een van de meest bijzondere stukken uit de collectie en is zeker geen massaproduct. In tegenstelling tot de stoelen is hier de hoge kwaliteit van het mahoniehout opvallend, dat vooral gespiegeld is aangebracht. Ook het beslag is van bijzonder hoge kwaliteit. Het bureau is een voorbeeld van eerdere restauratie- of onderhoudswerkzaamheden. Zo bleken de marmeren dekplaat en het beslag op de onderste deuren niet origineel. Dit is tijdens deze restauratiecampagne hersteld. Een ander meubelensemble dat te lijden heeft gehad door eerdere werkzaamheden is het corps de bibliothèque. Bijzonder is dat wij van deze boekenkasten, bedoeld voor Lodewijks bibliotheek en topografisch kabinet, het contract tussen Breytspraak en de architect hebben. Dit geeft inzicht in hoe de meubelmaker te werk moest gaan. Interessant is dat Breytspraak de constructie zo diende te maken dat de planken verstelbaar bleven. Er werd uitdrukkelijk gevraagd om de kasten te fineren met mahonie, maar wel zo dat het uiterlijk van massief mahoniehout geïmiteerd werd. Ten slotte laten een aantal kleinere meubelen, geleverd voor het appartement van de kroonprins (1809) de veelzijdigheid van Breytspraaks atelier zien. Zo leverde hij meerdere gueridons (driepoottafels), opgebouwd uit een ‘wagenwiel’ dat het marmeren blad draagt, een kolom en een plint op leeuwenpoten. De onderdelen zijn vastgezet met een ijzeren stang die aangeschroefd kan worden

The changing context of innovation management: A critique of the relevance of the stage-gate approach to current organizations

The stage-gate method was initially developed as a description of the new product development practices within high-performing firms. At its heart the concept is simple: and the flow of activity of a stage-gate includes project action, information generation, analysis and decision. Research has shown that the stage-gate method has been extremely successful in many contexts. The question of whether the approach is suitable for all projects in all situations is a principal faultline within the literature. Proponents argue that adaptations and evolutions of the stage approach enable it to be universally applied. This paper provides a critical review of the literature and we identify chronic limitations of stage-gate when evaluated against contemporary challenges, including VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), environment, digitization and open innovation. We remain critical about whether these contemporary currents are best approached by yet another reconfiguration of stage-gate building blocks. We argue that high uncertainty (caused by these currents) requires the flexibility to change fundamental elements of a project, including the underlying concept and the target market, which means that stage-gate is not well suited to innovation processes addressing these contemporary challenges. We propose a typology to show its suitability.</jats:p

Strain Measurements During Structural Conservation Treatment and the Long-term Monitoring of a 17th-century Dutch Panel Painting

No abstract available

Strain Measurements During Structural Conservation Treatment and the Long-term Monitoring of a 17th-century Dutch Panel Painting

No abstract available

Unravelling a 17th-century prison escape: The quest to identify the original Hugo Grotius bookchest

In 1621, the humanist Hugo Grotius performed a masterly escape from life imprisonment at Loevestein Castle in the Netherlands by hiding in \na bookchest. Currently, three museums in the Netherlands (Loevestein Castle, Rijksmuseum and Museum Prinsenhof) possess chests related \nto Grotius\xe2\x80\x99 story. This study presents research carried out to decipher whether any of them couldactually claim to have been the one used for the \nescape. Inspection of the materials and structure of the chests allowed us to discard the one in Loevestein Castle from the outset, as it is unlikely \nto have been a bookchest. However, the other two most likely were, and dendrochronological research through digital photographs provided date

Integrating expert feedback on the spot in a time-efficient explorative CT scanning workflow for cultural heritage objects

Computed Tomography (CT) has proven itself as a powerful technique for analysing the internal structure of cultural heritage objects. The process followed by conservators and technical art historians for investigating an object is explorative: each time a new question is asked based on the outcome of the previous investigation. This workflow however conflicts with the static nature of CT imaging, where the planning, execution and image analysis for a single CT scan can take days, or even weeks. A new question often requires conducting a new experiment, repeating the process of planning, execution and image analysis. This means that the time that is needed to complete the investigation is often longer than originally anticipated. In addition, it brings up more practical challenges such as the transportation of the object, facility availability and dependence on the imaging operator, as well as the cost of running additional experiments. A much needed interactive imaging process, where the user can adapt the CT scanning process based on the insights discovered on the spot, is hard to accomplish. Therefore, in this paper we show how a time-efficient explorative workflow can be created for CT investigation of art objects, where the object can be inspected in 3D while still in the scanner, and based on the observations and the resulting new questions, the scanning procedure can be iteratively refined. We identify the technical requirements for a CT scanner that can address the diversity in cultural heritage objects (size, shape, material composition), and the need for adaptive steering of the scanning process required for an explorative workflow. Our approach has been developed through the interdisciplinary research projects The See-Through Museum and Impact4Art. We demonstrate the key concepts by showing results of art objects scanned at the FleX-ray Laboratory at CWI, Amsterdam

A study of the metal binding capacity of saccharinic acids formed during the alkali catalysed decomposition of cellulosic materials: nickel complexation by glucoisosaccharinic acids and xyloisosaccharinic acids

The stoichiometry of the metal complexes formed between nickel and the ligand β-glucoisosaccharinic acid (β-GISA) and a racemic mixture of enantiomers of xyloisosaccharinic acid (XISA) has been determined at both neutral and alkaline pHs. Bjerrum plots, Job's plots and conductance measurements indicated that for each of the systems one to one Ni(ligand) complexes were formed at near neutral pHs (13) sparingly soluble Ni2(ligand)(OH)4 complexes were formed. The stability constants for the Ni(β-GISA), Ni(α-GISA) and Ni(XISA) complexes formed at neutral pH were determined under identical conditions using polarographic studies. The measured stability constants for Ni(β-GISA) (log10 β = 1.94 ± 0.15) and for Ni(α-GISA)(log10 β = 2.07 ± 0.13) are very similar; the value measured for the Ni(XISA) complex (log10 β = 0.83) was an order of magnitude smaller. The stability constants for the Ni2(Ligand)(OH)4 complexes formed at highly alkaline pHs were determined using the Schubert method. The measured stability constant for Ni2(β-GISA)(OH)4 (log10 β = 30.6 ± 0.5) was an order of magnitude bigger than the value for Ni2(α-GISA)(OH)4 (log10 β = 29.0 ± 0.5) measured under identical conditions. Attempts to measure the stability constant for Ni2(XISA)(OH)4 were unsuccessful; Ni2(XISA)(OH)4 complexes were not present in significant amounts at high pH to allow the log10β value to be determined by the Schubert method

A prediction model for response to immune checkpoint inhibition in advanced melanoma

Predicting who will benefit from treatment with immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) in patients with advanced melanoma is challenging. We developed a multivariable prediction model for response to ICI, using routinely available clinical data including primary melanoma characteristics. We used a population-based cohort of 3525 patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma treated with anti-PD-1-based therapy. Our prediction model for predicting response within 6 months after ICI initiation was internally validated with bootstrap resampling. Performance evaluation included calibration, discrimination and internal–external cross-validation. Included patients received anti-PD-1 monotherapy (n = 2366) or ipilimumab plus nivolumab (n = 1159) in any treatment line. The model included serum lactate dehydrogenase, World Health Organization performance score, type and line of ICI, disease stage and time to first distant recurrence—all at start of ICI—, and location and type of primary melanoma, the presence of satellites and/or in-transit metastases at primary diagnosis and sex. The over-optimism adjusted area under the receiver operating characteristic was 0.66 (95% CI: 0.64–0.66). The range of predicted response probabilities was 7%–81%. Based on these probabilities, patients were categorized into quartiles. Compared to the lowest response quartile, patients in the highest quartile had a significantly longer median progression-free survival (20.0 vs 2.8 months; P &lt;.001) and median overall survival (62.0 vs 8.0 months; P &lt;.001). Our prediction model, based on routinely available clinical variables and primary melanoma characteristics, predicts response to ICI in patients with advanced melanoma and discriminates well between treated patients with a very good and very poor prognosis.</p