Koopmans-de Wet House ( ) is a former residence and current museum in Strand Street, Cape Town, South Africa. The house became part of the South African Museum in 1913 and was opened to the public on 10 March 1914. It was declared a National Monument under National Monuments Council legislation on 1 November 1940. It is the oldest house museum in South Africa.
Strand Street
Strand Street is one of the oldest and widest streets in Cape Town. Between 1664 and 1702 Strand Street was spoken of as Zee Straat. A Dutch East India Company (VOC) record of 1704 refers to it as Breete Strand Straat, while another calls it Breete Opgaande Straat no. I. In 1790 the matter was settled and name-boards with Strand Straat affixed to the corner houses.
For two centuries Strand Street was home to the residences of citizens of the Cape Colony. The first house was occupied on 8 February 1664 by the baker Thomas Christoffel Mulder. Another resident was the wealthy butcher Henning Huysing, who built one of the first two-storeyed houses in the Cape Colony in the street. The Dutch East India Company granted erven (plots) to these employees, who would later play important roles as citizens of the colony. Huysing became a Vryburgher (or Vrijburgher) on 2 January 1684, a status in which an employee of the VOC was released from their contractual obligations to the company and permitted to farm, become a tradesman, or work for others. Ironically, Huysing would be instrumental in getting Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the governor of the Cape Colony, recalled on charges of corruption.
The company had imposed a grid of streets on the settlement, which divided it into blocks. Block J was bordered by Strand Street, Long Street, Castle Street and Burg Street and was divided into 10 erven (plots). Erven 7 and 8, on the Strand Street side, were granted by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel to Reijnier Smedinga in 1699 and 1701 respectively. Erf 8 is the site of the Koopmans-de Wet House.
Occupants The early dwelling, now substantially extended and altered, was built in 1701 by Reijnier Smedinga, silversmith, goldsmith, jeweller and joint assayer to the Dutch East India Company. In 1722, Anthonij Hoesemans, lessee of a Company's wine license, took ownership of the house and erf 8. His enjoyment of the property was brief, for in 1723 the minutes of the Council of Policy at the Cape of Good Hope begin to refer to Claas van Donselaar, a soldier who had been released from his contract on 4 May 1723, as the lessee of the wine license. Both Hoesemans and his wife, Rijkje van Donselaar, had died earlier that year. Claas van Donselaar was uncle to Rijkje van Donselaar and was made executor of the estate, along with Daniel Thibault and Jan Smit. The property was transferred to Jacob Leever in 1724, to Hendrik van Aarde in 1730, and from him to Willem Pool (c.1744).
A German carpenter, Johan Fredrik Willem Böttiger, the owner from 1748 to 1771 increased the area of the property and enlarged the house. Böttiger was a Burgher Councillor and is thus distinguished for being a member of the very first town council in South Africa.
Pieter Malet, the owner from 1771 to 1793, and his wife, Catharina Kruins, added to the property by installing the slave-quarters over a coach-house at the back, building a second rear wing and adding uppers stories to both wings. It is also in his time that the current façade was added. When Malet died, Hendrik Vos bought the house from his widow.
Vos and his wife, Maria Anna Colyn, lived in the house from 1796 to 1806. They had four children while living in there.
Margaretha Jacoba Smuts, the widow of the president of the Burgher Council, Hendrik Justinus de Wet, acquired the property in 1806. Some time after her husband died in 1802, she had sold their house on the corner of Heerengracht (Adderley Street) and Castle Street and moved with their five children and her stepson.
De Wet left a large estate, including slaves. Margaretha had retained seven slaves: Jonas van de Caab, a cooper; Citie, his "wife"; Hector and Jacob, their children; Theresia; Kito van Mosambique, a cook; and July, a houseboy. By 1816, ten slaves were registered to the widow Smuts. July is not listed, but the new slaves were: Lafleur, a woodcutter; Lendor, a woodcutter, who in a later document is reported to have died on 31 December 1822; Kado (alias Bejoen), a tailor; Nancy, a girl, aged about 4.SO 6/34: the Slave Registers, 1816–1834, vol. W
The brothers Johannes, Fredrick and Petrus de Wet inherited the house after her death in 1840, and Johannes decided to buy the others out. He married Adriana Dorothea Horak, a granddaughter of Martin Melck, and the daughter of Jan Andries Horak, whose ancestor had built the Smedinga house. They had two daughters Maria (Marie) and Margaretha. Marie had been born in the house on 18 March 1834.
Marie de Wet married Johan Koopmans in 1864 and it is this union that gave rise to the current name of the house. The death of Johan Koopmans in 1880, sent Maria into an extended period of mourning, during which she travelled abroad, meeting King William III of the Netherlands. On her return she and her sister lived in Koopmans-de Wet House and turned it into a salon, and a transit point for supplies donated to Boer prisoners of war during the South African War.
The Sale of 1913
Marie died on 2 August 1906 and when Margaretha de Wet died on 18 October 1911, the event was anticipated by a group of people interested in the preservation of cultural objects, calling themselves the National Society. Ons Land, a Dutch-language newspaper, had begun the campaign for the preservation of the Koopmans-de Wet House as a historical monument. On 28 October, the National Society weighed in, adding that its content was a treasury of antiques and should be preserved intact. The Municipal Council passed a similar motion on 7 November. Architect Herbert Baker wrote in support from Johannesburg, as did his partner, Frank Masey, from Salisbury.
The wills of the De Wet sisters were ruled legally impossible to execute and the house (27 Strand Street, now no. 35), with all its content, was to be put up for auction. At the beginning of 1913 influential cultural figures Dora Fairbridge, Edward Roworth, William Frederick Purcell, Major William Jardine, Franklin Kaye Kendall, and Fred Glennie were driving the campaign for government purchase of the Koopmans-de Wet Collection. Florence and her husband, the Randlord Lionel Phillips, threw their considerable influence behind the movement from Johannesburg.
Under the patronage of Aletta Johanna, Lady de Villiers, wife of Chief Justice John Henry de Villiers, a meeting was held in the Cape Town City Hall Library on 27 January 1913. Chaired by Annie Botha, wife of Louis Botha, the meeting was attended by powerful personalities: Harry Hands (the mayor), J. R. Finch (the Town Clerk), Sir James Rose-Innes, Sir William Thorne, Sir Ernest Kilpin, Olive Schreiner, Dr. F.V. Engelenburg, L. Péringuey (director of the South African Museum), Louis Mansergh, Anna Purcell, Mrs. Marloth (wife of botanist Rudolph Marloth), Dora Fairbridge, Sir Meiring Beck and Mrs. Beaumont Rawbone.
Lionel Philipps moved that the house and contents be preserved for the nation and that General and Executive Committees be formed to engage in fundraising and other necessary activities. He went so far as to propose the members, with Annie Botha and Dora Fairbridge to chair the committees. Florence Phillips was to serve on both. The Rev. A. I. Steytler seconded the motion in Dutch and the proposal was accepted unanimously.
To drum up publicity, Olga Racster began contributing a series of articles on the house and its contents to the Cape Times. Mayor Harry Hands sent letters appealing for donations to all municipalities throughout the Union. Most notably, Johannesburg refused.
On the night of 27 February 1913, Florence Phillips accompanied by Mrs. Grace Douglas Pennant, Mrs. Marloth, and Dr. Purcell, went with Lionel in a deputation to appeal to the Cape Town City Council itself. Lionel and Senator Sir Meiring Beck addressed the council with the result of £1000 being voted (later reduced to £500 by a meeting of ratepayers). Amid bitter political division, the House of Assembly united briefly behind a national issue and allocated £3000 for the purchase of furniture.
Dr. Purcell, Mr. J. R. Finch, Mr. A. E. F. Gore and Florence Phillips were selected to choose the furniture and objects which were to be retained for the Collection. The painter Edward Roworth, who was in 1941 to be made director of the South African National Gallery, assisted in the selection of the pictures. After inspecting 2089 lots, it was agreed to purchase 356. The General Committee designated Dr. Purcell to bid.
The sale, conducted by J. J. Hofmeyer & Son, started on 17 March 1913 and was to last ten days. The first eight days took place at the Good Hope Hall, Cape Town; the last two at the house in Strand Street. Viewing only started on 15 March, and viewers were not allowed to touch any of the pieces. A sparse catalogue and less than ideal viewing conditions put the committee, which had been able to inspect at their leisure, at a considerable advantage.
The sale was controversial. William R. Morrison, an Africana dealer and collector, wrote ten highly critical reports in the Cape Times, and on the evening of the first day the Government allocation of public funds came under heavy attack in the House and had to be defended by Lionel Philips and Abraham Fischer.
Overvaluations abounded: a brass flower-bowl sold for £8 5s, prompting Morrison to quip that brass is counted among the precious metals in Cape Town. Another brass bowl sold for £9 10s. Bargains included a Louis XVI ormolu box, with mother of pearl lid, and inlaid enamel, by Vervain, sold for 26 shillings. A Louis XV silver cruet, with cut glass bottles and castors sold for £30.
Dr. Purcell was able to make his allotted purchases. He secured 374 lots, which he estimated to be 21% of the total. There were 69 pieces of furniture, 39 works of copper and brass, 28 pieces of Sheffield plate, 41 silver items, 110 pieces of glass and 196 ceramic articles. The Sheffield plate included the Breda service consisting of 3 branched candelabra, 5 entrée dishes, 4 covered dishes and 2 sauce-tureens. It was bought in London in the 1834 for Michiel van Breda of Oranjezicht, with slave emancipation money. It set the committee back £500 10s.
The most important silver items were Dutch, of which an engraved konvoor and kettle were notable. Among the glass was a tumbler, engraved with a portrait of Louis XVI, presented by him to a member of the de Lettre family.
A total of £4032 was realised.
The Koopmans-de Wet House would be auctioned on 8 April 1913. Lionel Phillips and his committee met in the night of 7 April, to formally resolve to buy the house and then hand it over to the South African Museum. The next day the public Committee bought the house for £2800 and formally donated it, along with Dr. Purcell's purchases, to the State.
The fate of the library Dr. Purcell was not the only successful bidder in 1913. William R. Morrison was asked by the Kimberley Library to purchase a number of rare South African books. The Kimberley Public Library Annual Report, submitted at the Annual General Meeting held on 4 March 1914 records that he was "successful in securing at very modest prices a considerable number of excessively rare books for our African collection". Morrison had spent £19 6/6 in total.