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In 2014, the collections of the Silver Museum Sterckshof and the Diamond Museum, both originating from the ‘Provinciaal Museum voor Kunstambachten’ in Deurne, were merged. Since then, DIVA’s collection policy has focused on diamonds, jewelry and silver from the Low Countries from the fifteenth-century to the present, with particular attention to the Golden Age of Antwerp and the Flemish Baroque.
The representative silver collection includes works by Lambertus Johannes Hannocet, Joannes Josephus Hennekin II, Anthoni en Balthasar Lepies and Joannes Moermans. Some of the silverwork is connected to paintings by Peter Paul Rubens. In addition, DIVA has a large collection of applied arts including pewter, porcelain and glass. In the sculpture section, the alabaster reliefs attributed to Willem van den Broecke alias Paludanus and sculptures by Pieter Scheemaeckers I and Jan Pieter Baurscheit I stand out.
The collection of prints and drawings contains several particularly rare items, such as a design related to the oeuvre of silversmith Michiel de Bruyn van Berendrecht, and an ornamental print by jeweler Joannes Baptista Grondoni. Manuals and model books for diamond cutters, jewelers, gold- and silversmiths are part of the Special Collections of the DIVA library.
Dr. Wim Nys, Head of Collections and Research (November 2021)