Oak, ebonised wood and bone with brass wire; probably Dutch, 1640-60, from the collection of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Two tier hexagonal birdcage of architectural form, on a structure of oak and wire with ornaments of bone, and ebonised and gilded wood.

Design
Two hexagonal cages, the lower one fixed to the upper with screws, the upper cage suspended from a modern metal rod and cross-bar. The bars of both cages consist of metal wire, decoratively lashed with thinner (copper?) wire. The bottom cage has three metal drinking troughs. The cages have wooden perching bars (4 below, and 3 above) that sit onto the wires.

The upper cage is in the form of a hexagonal temple with openwork wire cupola, above 6 arched apertures separated by bone columns above ebonised wood brackets, and with turned finials of gilded wood. The 'roof' piece of ebonised wood, the underside with a marquetry star design in bone and ebonised wood. Between the brackets are openwork panels with C motifs and an applied cartouche in bone. One of these sections is removeable (held on metal pins, top and bottom) so as to allow a bird to be inserted. Below the brackets is a thick moulding, partly consisting of a removeable oak tray for guano.

The lower cage is in the form of a hexagon, with arched apertures framed by bone columns above brackets, between which are openwork panels with an applied bone cartouche. Above the apertures is an architrave, and above that is a balustrade with cornice in ebonised wood with gilded vases in turned wood. (When the two cages are joined, these vases sit outside the brackets on the upper section.) The ceiling of the lower section has a marquetry design of a 6-point star within a 6-lobed flower, set against a walnut group. The base of the lower section, decorated with a marquetry design of a 12-pointed star against a walnut ground, has a circular aperture (through which a bird could be inserted) with a circular/hexagonal stopper with bayonet clips, the underside with a marquetry 6-pointed star within a hexagon.

One turned vase (9cm high) is missing (12/2012) from the underside of the bottom cage.
The base plate of the upper cage may be replacement. The hanging rod appears to be a modern addition. It is not clear how the two cages were fixed before the current modern screws.

Given by Lady Frampton

The birdcage was given to the Museum by Lady Frampton, widow of the sculptor, Sir George Frampton (1860-1928). A minute from H. Clifford Smith, Department of Woodwork, 22nd August 1936, in the acquisition file (Museum Archive MA/1/F1160), identifies the birdcage as having been given to Sir George by Anna Alma-Tadema, daughter of the artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, to whom the birdcage originally belonged. It is shown in her watercolour of the Drawing Room, Townsend House (Royal Academy) exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1885. Townsend House, Regent's Park was the earlier home of the Alma-Tadema family. After the death of Sir Lawrence in 1912, the contents of his later house, 34 Grove End Road were sold on the premises by Hampton & Sons, 9th-16th June 1913. The sale catalogue lists, in the Dutch Room and Bedchamber adjoining, lot 803, 'A bird cage of architectural design in two tiers of ebony, walnut and inlaid ivory in star and other devices with ivory columns and galleries (German 17th Century'. Presumably this is the same birdcage which might have been bought in, or may have been bought by Anna Alma-Tadema herself at the auction.

A cage like W.47-1936 is likely to have belonged to a member of the Dutch middle class and would have housed a canary or singing finch, species first brought over to Europe by the Portuguese trading fleets.

Roberts (p.120) notes that Utrecht Museum has some good specimens of 17th century cages. Another type of 17th century cage that survives (and that was imported to the Netherlands at that time) is 'the large domed curled-wire cage' still made in north Africa and Spain.

Seen from below, this cage presents a rich scheme of dark wood, white bone and gleaming wire, with star motifs (in 3-colour marquetry) on the underside and ceilings of the two cages. With one or more lively, singing birds inside, it must have formed an arresting element of a 17th century interior. Paintings by Pieter de Hooch suggest that cages hung high in a room were lowered for feeding the birds.

The history of bird-keeping can be traced back to the very beginnings of civilisation. In many cultures the keeping of tame and exotic birds seems to predate the keeping of birds purely as food. They are often depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphics and were kept in royal menageries, perhaps as a means of symbolising the King’s divine rule over nature. The rediscovery of the classical world and its love of villa gardening during the Renaissance, but especially the opening up of new trade routes fostered the fashion for owning exotic birds (Roberts, Sonia. Bird-Keeping and Birdcages: A History (London, 1972) p.29ff). According to Francesco Matarazzo, (1443 – 1518), “It belongs to the position of the great to keep horses, dogs, mules, falcons, exotic birds, court jesters and singers.” Pietro Crescenzi’s Opus Ruralium Commodurum (published in French, German and Italian in 1471) mentions the construction of outdoor aviaries, close enough to the house to be enjoyed, for ‘pheasants, partridges, nightingales, blackbirds, goldfinches, linnets and all kinds of singing birds’. (Robers p.31). Other exotics included parrots, prized for their brilliant colours and mimicry of the human voice; a pair of caged parrots being included in the illusionistic intarsia cupboard doors of Federico da Montefeltro’s studiolo.

In the fifteenth century Portuguese trading fleets first brought to Europe the canary, ‘ultimately very different in colour, conformation and habit from their wild finch forebears’ (Roberts p.29). Wild birds had an olive green plumage, and it was only in the 17th century that yellow became a feature of the breed, probably as a result of selective breeding. Gesner’s Historia Animalium (1555) calls the canary ‘the bird of sweetest song’ and includes notes on their diet, presumably for prospective owners. Roberts suggests that in the 17th century, bird-organ hurdy-gurdies were used to stimulate the song of prize canaries during training, as were cage covers or doors to blot out the daylight, and prompt the bird’s singing when removed. By the mid-17th century, the expertise of German and Italian bird trainers was recognised. Netherlandish fanciers concentrated on the production of the ‘show’ canary.

Bird keeping was a fervour that gripped all classes in seventeenth century Holland, and a fashion that spread to England, as witnessed by Samuel Pepys’s diary entry on 25 Janauary 1661 about the pair of canaries given him by a ship’s captain, and his subsequent delivery of two cages for them: "25th. At the office all the morning. Dined at home and Mr. Hater with me, and so I did make even with him for the last quarter. After dinner he and I to look upon the instructions of my Lord Northumberland's, but we were interrupted by Mr. Salisbury's coming in, who came to see me and to show me my Lord's picture in little, of his doing. And truly it is strange to what a perfection he is come in a year's time. From thence to Paul's Churchyard about books, and so back again home. This night comes two cages, which I bought this evening for my canary birds, which Captain Rooth this day sent me. So to bed"

In 1634, on a visit to Holland, Sir William Brereton noted the Prince of Orange’s famous garden aviary, “which was stocked with all manner of fowl”.

Peter Mundy, an Englishman visiting the Netherlands in 1640 noted:
"As For the art off Painting and the affection off the people to Pictures, I thincke none other goe beyond them…All in generall striving to adorne their house, especially theouter or street roome, with costly peeces…Allsoe their other Furniture and Ornamentts off their dwellings very Costly and Curious, Full off pleasure and home contentment, as Ritche Cupboards, Cabinetts, etts., Imagery, porcelaine, Costly Fine cages with birds etts., all these commonly in any house of indifferent quality; wonderful Nett and cleane, as well in their houses and Furniture, service, etts., Within doores, as in their streetes.”
Peter Mundy, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667, vol. 4, Travels in Europe, 1639-1647, ed. Richard Carnac Temple (London, 1925), 70-71, quoted in Mariët Westermann, ‘Making Home in the Dutch Republic’, in Art and Home, Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Westermann, (Denver Art Museum and The Newark Museum, Zwolle 2001), p.31. Westermann comments that his picture is probably an exaggeration but that inventories suggest that even modestly well-off burghers owned a few pictures, a fine cabinet or two, imported porcelain, local ceramics, the occasional birdcage.

Like the plates, rugs and other household effects, the keeping of birds by Dutch burgers and aristocracy acted as a symbol of trading wealth and personal prosperity. Merchants sought to impress their neighbours through their style of living, and the variety and magnificence of objects they owned. Tropical birds were not only coveted objects in their own right, but were splendidly housed in elaborate cages, the appeal being dependent on the overall appearance of bird and cage. Tiered forms, of which this is an example, with classical architectural detailing such as balustrades and columns, as well as wire cages in bell-shape variations were typical of the period. Such cages often made free use of expensive materials such as ebony and ivory (or their imitations, ebonised wood and ivory, as here) and often contained blown glass and fancy ceramic feeding pots. Hanging cages were sometimes further embellished with tassels and lustres hanging from their bases.

In seventeenth-century Dutch genre paintings, birdcages are frequently depicted, in diverse social settings (both indoors and out). Three main types of cage are seen: a large, round wicker demijohn cage suspended from a ceiling, often with several birds inside; a smaller, rectangular, often wall-mounted cage for a single bird; a tall, round cage in wood or metal(?) in richly-furnished interiors, and of similar type to W.47-1936, suspended from the ceiling (seen for example in various scenes by Jan Steen). Often the birdcage appears prominently close to a woman (sometimes provocative) preparing for an amorous encounter.

Birds could symbolise lasciviousness, the Dutch word for bird (vogel) and bird-catcher (vogelen) could also mean penis and matchmaker, lover, or pimp respectively, and the Dutch verb 'vogelen' (to bird) referring to sexual intercourse. Artists such as Gillis van Breen, Jan Steen and Jan Sanders van Hemessen played upon this double meaning, their depictions of birds representing both a lewd and morally unscrupulous sexuality as well as more romantic and sanitised depictions of love. In addition to such symbolic values, the birdcage also serves as a compositional device.

Popular moralising emblem books such as Jacob Cats, Sinne-en-Mennebeelden (1627), developing a theme expressed by other emblem authors, included the image of a caged bird (14) with the motto Amissa libertate laetior and including the lines:

"A prison faire is better for mee,
Then if I were at libertie.
So long as I did range abroade, and had my libertie,
So longe was I in pensivenesse, voyde of all melodie:
But since that I to prison came, within these boundes confynde,
My lovely bondage loosde my tongue, and cheared hath my mynde.
For now all day for joy I singe, though I in prison lye,
For nought at all doe I take care, I knowe no miserye
This Bondage sweete I doe imbrace, it is to mee great gaine;
And lovers likewise doe reioyce, when others lye in paine."

Another example is found in P.C. Hooft, Emblemata amatoria. Afbeeldinghen van minne. Emblèmes d'amour (Amsterdam 1611), Serva sed Secura (Captive but safe).
The birdcage emblem expresses "happy slavery", the safety of married life for women (constrainted yet safe), as opposed to the perils of unmarried and unconfined life.

Birdcages were probably a common sight in many 17th century Dutch homes. Aside from the tradition of keeping them for food, pet birds were valued for their song, liveliness and sometimes their bright plumage. Birds such as canaries or singing finches were first brought over to Europe by the Portuguese trading ships. They were not only coveted objects in their own right, but were splendidly presented in attractive cages like this one. Such cages often made free use of expensive materials such as ebony and ivory (or their imitations, ebonised wood and bone, as here) and might contain blown glass and fancy ceramic feeding pots, and be further embellished with tassels and lustres hanging from their bases.

W.47-1936