DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY GOBLET
C. 1675-1700, William Mooleyser (school of), Glass, Huis Van Gijn Collection, Bequest of Simon van Gijn, 1922
This goblet bears the logo of the Dutch West India Company (WIC). If you look closely, you can see that the monogram reads ‘GWC’, which stands for ‘Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie’ (Dutch West India Chartered Company), instead of ‘WIC’. The WIC and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were among the world’s first joint-stock companies. Along with Rotterdam and Delft, Dordrecht invested in the ‘Kamer van de Maze’ (Meuse Chamber) and the city regents earned a great deal of money on the trade in goods and people. There was a troubling side to these high profits though. The work on the plantations in Suriname and the Caribbean was performed by enslaved persons. The regents upheld this system of oppression and slavery until 1863.