Spiegel voor stadsbestuur nader onderzocht. Over de schouw van Colijn de Nole in Kampen

The fireplace in the sheriff's courtroom of the old town hall was made between 1543 and 1545 by the sculptor Colijn de Nole (living in Utrecht from 1530 onwards) from the Southern Netherlands. In order to learn more about the method of working of this sculptor the fireplace was subjected to a thorough research, focusing on type of stone, construction and paint. X-ray fluorescence research has shown that the fireplace is composed of at least three types of stone: sandstone, Baumberger stone and Avesnes stone. Large blocks of sandstone were used in the construction. In the finely worked parts of the monument both Baumberger stone and Avesnes stone were used: the German, harder type of stone in the lower zone, the softer and therefore more vulnerable Avesnes stone in the higher parts. It is likely that Colijn de Nole had gained experience of this type of stone from his native region and evidently chiselling it had so many advantages that he found it worthwhile to have the stone transported to Utrecht. The construction of the fireplace shows defects. The cause of these defects lies in the construction itself and problems with the fireplace, cracks at the corners of the frieze, are not new. At this moment a part of the iron construction in the flue is seriously affected by corrosion. The entire monument is covered by a layer of paint. Research with the naked eye and with the microscope showed that two layers can be distinguished in the paint. Possibly the components of the fireplace had already been covered by a first layer of paint before being mounted and the second layer was applied later, perhaps in the nineteenth century.