a Girl with a Pearl Earring will be right next-door

Very nearby the market, Museum Mauritshuis, The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, will reopen mid 2014, after being expanded and renovated.
It houses a world-famous collection of art. With paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, including work by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Jan Steen and Frans Hals. The collection also offers an overview of Dutch and Flemish painting from 1400 to 1800. With masterpieces by Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling, Rubens, Van Dyck, Cornelis Troost and Adriaen Coorte. The museum also owns several works by the 16th-century German artists Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger. This grand collection has been housed for nearly 200 years in the Mauritshuis, a 17th-century palace on the Hofvijver in The Hague.
The world famous painting: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer, will then be back in Holland after a tour in Japan and the US.
This painting and some fifty other important paintings from the collection went on tour to Japan; exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the Kobe City Museum.
Exhibitions in the United States will be at the Young Museum - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and at the Frick Collection in New York.
Much of the rest of the collection can be seen at the Gemeentemuseum/Municipalmuseum in The Hague under the title of: Masters from the Mauritshuis. Favourites such as The Bull by Paulus Potter, View of Delft by Johannes Vermeer and Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt will be on display there, along with more than a hundred other works from the Mauritshuis, until mid-2014.
Several other museums in the Netherlands and Belgium are also benefiting from a temporary trove of works from the Mauritshuis. For example, Amsterdam portraits will be at the Amsterdam Museum, and works related to the Dutch royal house will be at Paleis het Loo in Apeldoorn. 150 paintings from the collection will be on permanent display at the Galerij Prins Willem V in Buitenhof square in the centre of The Hague.
By mid-2014, all the paintings will be back in Het Mauritshuis in The Hague.

buying Poems or Prints and knowing of Princes

Isn't it strange how princes and kings,
and clowns that caper in sawdust rings,
and common people, like you and me,
are builders for eternity?

Each is given a list of rules;
a shapeless mass; a bag of tools.
And each must fashion, ere life is flown,
A stumbling block, or a Stepping-Stone.

A bag of tools by: R.L. Sharpe (1870-1950)

On 30 November 2013, the start of the celebrations for 200 years of the Kingdom of the Netherlands will kick off with a reconstruction of the landing of Prince Willem Frederik at Scheveningen.

On this day precisely 200 years ago Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau, later King Willem I, landed at Scheveningen beach after sailing from England, where his father, Prince William V, Prince of Orange-Nassau, had fled to in 1795 to escape the French. Now, 200 years later, a re-enactment of that historic landing will be broadcast live on television.
The bicentenary celebrations will be officially launched at the Ridderzaal in The Hague in the afternoon. The programme will include the presentation of a commemorative book and the premier performance of a piece of music specially composed for the occasion.
In the evening, there will be a party at the Circustheater, with performances by artists from all over the Kingdom and the Koninkrijksconcert / Kingdom Concert.

Careful with Boy’s and Books



In winter the bookmarket on Het Plein can be very romantic. Standholders blowing little clouds of warm breath into the cold air. Wearing mittens and slapping their hands for warmth. The sparkles of the small lightbulbs in each stand give a joyfull call of “we are here” .

But when the romance of a snowy wintersday is not yet to happen, it can be a rainswept grey thursday on Het Plein and that’s when we need your carefulness. Please be aware of the dripping of your umbrella on the books, wooden and silver items. The drops can realy damage the items.

Umbrella’s are not even allowed at the next place you can visit in The Hague. It’s nearby the Antique- and Bookmarket, at the other side of the pond called the Hofvijver.

A painting by the famous Italian artist Caravaggio (1571-1610) will be displayed in the Galerij Prins Willem V / Prince William V Gallery until 8 December 2013. The picture is 'Boy Bitten by a Lizard' from The National Gallery in London.

There are no paintings by Caravaggio in any Dutch museum collection, so this is a unique opportunity to admire one of his works in the first public art collection in the Netherlands.



Antiques, Books and Hockeysticks

Not an odd combination if you know that from May 31 to June 15, 2014 the World Cup Hockey will take place in The Hague.

After a thrilling, sun-drenched game you can take a relaxing stroll on the leafy Lange Voorhout and have a perhaps evenmore exciting experience; finding an antiquarian book you fall in love with, the missing link of your collection Blue Delft, an antique Chinese vase you will make a fortune with or just a nice souvenir to take home. 

The participating countries of the Rabobank Hockey World Cup 2014 are: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, China, England, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa and the USA.

Dear visitor.
Welcome to this new Blog. We hope to present you an impression of the Antiques and Bookmarket in The Hague, Holland.
During the coming time we will be adding more information about
standholders. The list below is just a beginning. Also hotels, museum's and parking facilities near by will be added.

From October-April the market can be visited on Het Plein.
Less standholders then in Summertime, but very enjoyable.

We would like to invite you to sent us short stories about your visit to the market, please do. And pictures are also very welcome.