Barock

10.10-22.2.2026

New set of silver objects from Albert de la Chapelle’s collection 

In the autumn of 2025, Chappe will exhibit a new set of the museum’s donor, Albert de la Chapelle’s, baroque silver pieces. This is the second version of the culturally and historically valuable collection since the exhibition opened in 2024. 

This time, more of the collection’s coin beakers and tankards as well as tulip-decorated objects are on display. Coin tankards, as the name suggests, have coins embedded as decorative elements. In the exhibition, you can find both German and French Baroque coins.    

In the 17th century, tulips became a popular luxury item in Europe, especially in the Netherlands and the surrounding area. There was even talk of tulip mania, as some tulips became so popular and expensive that their prices could exceed the price of a house. Of course, artists and craftsmen began to include tulip motifs in their works, as did silversmiths and goldsmiths. 

The exhibition includes Albert’s first silver object, a sideboard dish he inherited. This item became the catalyst for the collection, which today contains hundreds of objects and has become one of the most significant silver collections in Finland. 

Barock – the Albert de la Chapelle silver collection presents the oldest, mainly from the 17th century, objects from the silver collection of Doctor of Medicine and Professor of Medical Genetics, Albert de la Chapelle. The extensive collection of hundreds of objects includes both historically valuable silver and objects that Albert collected for his own amusement. Some of the culturally and historically valuable collection will be presented to the public for the first time in Chappe in 2024. The selection of objects will be updated in accordance with exhibition changes.

“At the estate distribution after my father, I received a small radiant baroque altar wafer plate. This was a real stroke of luck because I had already been madly in love with the plate for a while. I can immerse myself in thoughts about the time when priests served wafers on this plate during communion. Well, as the lucky owner of the plate, I started going to auctions at home and abroad, and the result is in front of us in the form of a large collection of silver objects belonging to my art foundation and based in Ekenäs.”
Albert de la Chapelle


Image Credits:
Niclas Warius