Career
In the early 18th century, Amsterdam"s canal houses were home to a multitude of curiosity cabinets, and one type that was often kept by women, was the "miniature house", a dollhouse based on the owner"s own house in real life, and which often included miniature books, art objects, and furniture items from chamber pots to garden fountains. Such dollhouses were meant for show rather than play, and visitors from all over the Netherlands and beyond would come to Amsterdam to visit such "cabinets". Sara Rothé was a dollhouse owner who spent most of her time on decorating and showing her cabinet.
She was herself a very good embroiderer and embroidered most of the cloth furnishings in the cabinet.
Two of these had been the dollhouses of Cornelia van der Gon, the wealthy widow of Adriaan Dortsman who later married the artist David van der Plas. Today part of the dollhouse and some of the furnishings can be traced back to Cornelia van der Gon.
The houses in miniature that Sara Rothé created were probably based on her house in Amsterdam, Keizersgracht 474, and her summer home or "buitenplaats" called "Klein Berkenrode" which was located on what is today the Rijksstraatweg in Haarlem.