1631 Yellow Dutch Brick from Stockade Site (Fort Zwaanendael)

In 1631 the Dutch West India Company established a whaling settlement near what is now Lewes, Delaware. Backers believed that whales wintered in the Delaware Bay. They deployed an 18-gun ship, called the Walvis, to establish 32 settlers along the banks of the Delaware Bay. Under the leadership of Gillis Hossitt, the Dutch would harpoon and render the giant mammals.

The fort called Swannendael - Valley of the Swans - included a two-story house of yellow brick imported from Holland, a cookhouse for reducing whale blubber to oil, and a protective palisade. In the center of the small complex, mounted on a post, was a metal panel painted with the Dutch Coat of Arms.

If the Delaware Bay had any whales at all, the Dutch harpooned none from Swannendael. Within a few months, an Indian unaware of the symbolic importance of the coat of arms, removed it. When the Dutch complained, the head of the offender was presented as a peace offering. The Dutch misinterpreted the gesture and in an all too familiar example of escalating violence, the settlers were all killed and Swannendael was reduced to smoldering ruins. The only thing left was the remains of the two-story yellow brick house.

This yellow Dutch brick was dug up within the stockade site near the De Vries monument in Lewes, Delaware during an archeological excavation of the site conducted by the Sussex Archaeological  Association in 1952. It was then sent to archeologist Dr. Frederick R. Matson of Penn State University for study and determined to be authentic. The brick measures approximately 1" x 3" x 7" and comes in an oak hinged box for protection, which measures 2" x 5" x 9" on the inside top cover is a card that reads "One of the Authenticated Bricks brought from Holland of which the fort at Zwaanendael was built" Property of Harold W. T. Purnell. A prominent Sussex County historian the late Harold W. T. Purnell was also a Delaware State Senator in the 1930s. This rare yellow Dutch brick is from his collection.

$995.00 plus $10.00 shipping & handling.