Open House

By Marion Hume

From the outside, the place is unexceptional--a barn conversion set against a typically flat and watery Dutch landscape in Monnickendam, a town about 20 minutes outside Amsterdam. That is exactly what makes the interior of Ingeborg Ravestijn Antiques a greater surprise. For within, there's a roaring fire in the grate, stags' heads hung on the walls, a vast dining-room table set with fine silverware and a mass of etched-glass ship's decanters on the handsome sideboard. In the kitchen are stacks of exquisite porcelain and a little gathering of tiny figures, each designed to hold toothpicks. "I only buy what I like to have in my home," says Ravestijn, of her house where everything--from the 18th century glass jars in the sumptuous bathroom to a sharkskin box holding fruit knives--is for sale. Ravestijn, a renowned antiques dealer for over 20 years, gave up her city shop when it became tiresome not being able to see the treasures she had collected. Now they are grouped like exquisite Dutch Old Master still lifes in this home where she and her partner, Narda van't Veer, one of Holland's leading photo agents, live and work (they lease out the land for others to farm). "I like it this way, although the chandelier should be bigger," says Ravestijn, gesturing upwards. A larger one was taken down and sold the day before.

Oudelandsdijkje 9 (31 20) 436 0706 By appointment only info@ravestijn-antiques.nl www.ravestijn-antiques.nl