Exotica on the move: Birds of paradise in early modern Holland

Exploring the interpretive potential of a study of exotica as objects on the move, this essay analyses a paradigmatic instance of the copious exotic objects that the Dutch mobilized in the seventeenth century birds of paradise. Native to Papua New Guinea, these birds were prized throughout Europe for their stunning plumage, rarity, and distant origins. By reconstructing trade and interest in birds of paradise in the Netherlands, this essay describes how these exotic wares were described and evaluated; how they were valued on and off the market; and how the awe that they inspired served political purposes. In early modern Holland, the exotic depended for its value on the coordinates of the market, and also exercised a power beyond market control, entwined with the political aims of the emergent Republic. In ways that this essay delineates, birds of paradise exemplify early modern Dutch exoticism.