D2572. Polychrome Model of a Child in a High Chair

Delft, circa 1770

The baby wearing a manganese cap and green-striped jacket, seated in a manganese-wheeled hexagonal rolling chair with a high back, inscribed and painted on the blue ground front and sides with yellow, iron-red and green floral scrollwork.

DIMENSIONS
Height: 13.4 cm. (5.3 in.)

NOTE
A kakstoel was a multifunctional wheeled high chair designed for both dining and toilet use. This hexagonal model featured a tray for feeding and playing, a seat with an opening for a chamber pot underneath, and a footrest with a brazier below to keep the child warm. These high chairs were commonly placed in the kitchen, and children who were not yet potty trained would sit without pants. The cushions were loose and washable, with one featuring a circular hole in the center to accommodate the toilet function. The chairs were often adorned with incised motifs and decorative painting.

Although the kakstoel was particularly popular in the seventeenth century, it remained in use in traditional Dutch communities such as Hindeloopen, Spakenburg, and Marken until the twentieth century. An example of the kakstoel in use can be seen in Johannes Cornelisz. Verspronck’s large-scale painting Boy Asleep in a High Chair (circa 1664), which is illustrated in M. Westermann’s Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt (Zwolle, 2001, p. 180, no. 53). The painting depicts the chair complete with a foot-warming brazier, highlighting its practical design.

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