Ever cared to know what one of those 17th-Century canal mansions looks like on the inside? Most of them are today operated as offices, but two have been turned into museums whose chief interest is the glimpse they give you into 17th-Century life.
The first, The Toneelmuseum (Theatre Museum), 168 Herengracht, houses such stage items as old props, busts of famous Dutch performers, and sketches and models of early stage scenery. But it is chiefly fascinating for its interior, which is that of a sumptuouslydecorated merchant’s home, with marble floors and walls, frescoes, and little plaster figures decorating the ceiling. Open every day except Tuesday from 10 to 5, on Sundays from 1 to 5.
The second of these establishments, the Willet-Holthuysen Museum, 605 Herengracht, is simply devoted to displaying the contents of the very typical patrician mansion that it is. This one provides a perfect introduction to the mood of elegant, old Amsterdam: the interior is more sedate, less flamboyant than that of the Theatre Museum, and the household exhibits include glassware, china, tapestries and paintings, some lovely items in gold, silver and ivory, even an old sea chest. Open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5, except on Sundays, when it opens at 1 p.m.
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