In the depot of the National Carriage Museum in Leek, someone walks around with a curious look. In his hands is a broad, blue cushion from one of the carriages that originally came from Castle de Haar. It is the curator of the carriage museum, Jan Zijlstra, who is working on a real puzzle with restorers Piet and Maria Stolk.

 

They walk with pillows from one carriage to another. "Where are the missing cushions from the Grand Duc," Maria Stolk wonders, "because in my experience they must be there. And I want assurance before we start on that carriage." The answer may well 'n lie in De Haar's Landauer or Coupé, which are still in the Leekster depot. After all, the cushions in them have the same passement with a striped motif. Even before they take out a cushion, Piet Stolk notices a difference in the cushions of the two carriages: some have pumpkin buttons, others have buttons covered with leather. The two experts remove four cushions from the Landauer, two with pumpkin buttons and two with leather buttons. They discover that none of the four pillows really fit well in this carriage, any more than the two pillows that are in the Coupe. After some walking back and forth, and fitting again and again, they agree: the cushions have been changed at some point. Maybe in a move, maybe in cleaning, maybe a long time ago. Now the correct ones are back in place, leaving two that, it will be seen later at the restoration center, fit the Grand Duc to the millimeter. "The bottom line now is that we are missing two of the Landauer's original cushions. And we still have, for example, the question of where the rugs of the carriages are," summarizes conservator Jan Zijlstra. He will continue his research in the near future. "Because how complete were the carriages when they arrived in Leek sixty years ago, I can't say that yet." In any case, today a piece of the puzzle has been re-laid and all the cushions are labeled, to prevent mix-ups in the future.

Also read part 6 of the carriage project by Mario Broekhuis