House of The Five Continents (Ship Themed Building) 1901

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Arturo
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House of The Five Continents (Ship Themed Building) 1901

Post by Arturo » Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:07 pm

It is a house built in 1901 in Antwerp, Belgium by architect Frans Smet Verhas (1851-1925). Frans Smet Verhas was a Belgian architect (Flemish), born in Thames (near Temse) in 1851, died in Antwerp in 1925. He was one of the great figures of Art Nouveau movement in Antwerp. He realized numerous houses in a rich eclectic style or neo-Flemish Renaissance style, styles that were very popular in the Belle Epoque in the citizenry.

This extravagant house was commissioned by a thriving shipowner P. Rouis who added a ship’s bow to the original design of the architect Frans Smet Verhas. This remarkable building known as “the little boat” in Antwerp is a hint of city’s maritime past. Antwerp is indeed a great harbour city with an old history.

The house has characteristic symmetrical shapes, arches and decorative surfaces with curved, plant-like designs and layers of yellow brick, which are typical for Antwerp Art nouveau architecture. The first floor balcony is exactly modeled on the wooden bow of a sailing ship. The house is decorated with stained-glass windows carrying the names of the five different continents.

Frans Smet Verhas’s architecture products were originally a complex of four houses, but today there are only three left. Now it as a protected monument in Antwerp.

On the stamp depicted a drawing of the Five Continents by the Belgian artist Désiré Roegiest.

Belgium 1995, S.G.?, Scott: 1588.

Source: http://www.antwerp-tourist-guide.com/bootje.html

Source: https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/dibe/relict/6366
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