For every collector, there comes a time when they must make plans for the future of their collection. So too for silver collector, Annelies Krekel. Because she didn’t want to sell her collection to be broken up, she approached Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Drents Museum, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and the Nederlands Zilvermuseum in Schoonhoven.

The four museums decided to buy the collection jointly so that the collection could remain in the Netherlands. The purchase was financially supported by the Rembrandt Association and the Mondriaan Fund.

Annelies Krekel’s complete collection comprises approximately 140 pieces and includes representative examples by leading designers, silversmiths and manufacturers from the period 1880-1940, such as Koninklijke Van Kempen & Begeer, Josef Hoffmann, Jan Eisenloeffel and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. All the important movements and institutions from these decades are represented, including the Arts & Crafts movement, the Wiener Werkstätte and the Bauhaus.

From the collection of Annelies Krekel, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen selected an international group of fifteen objects from the period 1880-1940 that chart the transition from luxury one-off items to industrial mass production. These objects complement the other objects in the museum’s design collection from this period.

The wall cabinets contain a selection of glassware from the former collection of Cor de Wit. It is just a part of the extensive collection of Scandinavian glass that the museum acquired from him. It is another example of a private collection that the museum has saved from being dispersed.