OKS-collection

I Frisian heritage and Asian and Western ceramics

The Ottema-Kingma Foundation OKS owns approx. 30,000 objects, a great number of which were made in Friesland. The OKS loans these objects to more then 30 institutions, especially cultural heritage institutions, but also town halls and churches; most of these institutions are located in Friesland. The major part of the collection is on loan to the Princessehof and the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden. Actually, the collection consists of two separate parts, i.e. Asian ceramics (almost exclusively in the Princessehof) and Frisian art and arts and crafts.
Nanne Ottema, who kept on collecting until his death in 1955, brought together a great deal of the objects himself. These objects can be recognized in the database by object numbers beginning with ‘NO’.
The OKS started acquiring objects right from 1955; these objects can be recognized by object numbers beginning with ‘OKS’.

Almost the full collection is included in the database and can be consulted by everyone. 

II The Company collection of the Ceramics factory Koninklijke Tichelaar, or BCT

A special part of the collection is the company collection of the ceramics factory Koninklijke Tichelaar in Makkum. 2,085 pieces of decorative ceramics and approximately 3,000 tiles together give an idea of the models and designs from 1880 to 1990. At the beginning of the 21st century Koninklijke Tichelaar handed over their archival collection of models and other matters to the OKS, which gave them on loan to the Princessehof in Leeuwarden.
Besides the ceramics collection the OKS also owns a very extensive, unique collection of pricked stencils, which used to belong to Koninklijke Tichelaar and which are on loan to Tresoar, Leeuwarden. This is a suitable location, because both the family archives and the company archives of Tichelaar are also kept there.
 

III Ornamental prints

Out of his interest in the historical development of design, in addition to many objects in the field of interior design and crafts, Nanne Ottema also assembled a collection of nearly 3,000 ornamental prints. These pictures show a variety of different designs and ideas in the field of ornament, decoration and design, and therefore form an integral part of his collection.

The collection has long been dormant in the depot of Ceramics Museum Princessehof, but has been studied and documented after its "rediscovery" by the department of art history at the Radboud University Nijmegen. The results can be consulted via the database. Since late 2009, the collection is on loan to the Fries Museum.