Golden coach door opens

Especially for Budget Day, the Amsterdam Museum opens the door wide. The door of the Golden coach of course!

The Golden Coach has been in a glass enclosure in the courtyard of the Amsterdam Museum since 18 June, after a restoration of more than five years. Visitors can view it there in peace and quiet. Until now, the door of the Golden Coach was closed, which unfortunately made it difficult to see the interior, which has also been thoroughly restored. It has now been decided to open the door so that the inside of the Golden Coach can also be viewed. From Prinsjesdag (Tuesday 21 September) onwards, the door will open and visitors will be able to take a closer look at the richly detailed inside of the carriage.

Interior

The inside of the Golden Coach is completely covered in embroidery by Amsterdam women. As many as 15 million stitches! Ida van Emstede-Winkler coordinated the handiwork. Students from her Art Needlework School collaborated, as did orphan girls from the Catholic Maagdenhuis and the Burgerweeshuis, which now houses the Amsterdam Museum. Perhaps the girls embroidered on the spot where the Golden Coach is now displayed. Whether they were paid is unknown. The women of the associations Arbeid Adelt and Tesselschade were paid. These societies had been founded by women from the middle and upper classes who wanted paid work, one of the demands of the feminist movement. Embroidery was labour-intensive. Because payment was made per item, the hourly rate was disappointing: 10 cents, much less than the 25 cents paid to men at the Spyker factory.

Visitors

The exterior and interior of the Golden Coach have been thoroughly restored for over five years. At the Amsterdam Museum, visitors can view the carriage up close in peace and quiet in a glass enclosure in the Amsterdam Museum courtyard. In six museum rooms around the courtyard, hundreds of cultural-historical objects, paintings, garments, cartoons, photographs, moving images and contemporary artworks provide a multifaceted picture of the history and use of the Golden Coach and past and present discussions about this iconic vehicle. The Amsterdam Museum also invites visitors to share their views on the Golden Coach.

Good to know

The exhibition 'The Golden Coach', from 21 September with an open door, is on view until 27 February 2022 at the Amsterdam Museum, Kalverstraat 92. The exhibition is made possible in part by BankGiro Lottery, Blockbuster Fund, De Nederlandsche Bank, Dr Hendrik Muller's Vaderlandsch Fonds (publication), DutchCulture, Gerard van den Tweel, Van den Tweel Foundation from Nijkerk, Kickstart Cultuurfonds, Mondriaan Fonds, Nico Nap Foundation, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed. The Amsterdam Museum is structurally supported by the City of Amsterdam and the BankGiro Lottery.