Made of cast iron, probably in the Netherlands, ca. 1650 – found at the Schuyler Flatts, Colonie, New York – held by the New York State Museum.
A mysterious fragment of an iron fireback found near the hearth of an old manor house in what was New Netherlands shows how we have misunderstood the Dutch – a people who strove for stability, domesticity, and traditional social hierarchy to link their far-flung colonies with the homeland.
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Image courtesy of the state of New York.
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Things You Don’t Know
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