The two rooms of the house “Zum Lindenbaum” have only belonged to the Museum since 1961.
Previously, it was a separate small residential building in which a barber and surgeon, then a
variety of craftsmen once plied their trades. Today, around 6,000 Fayence tiles donated by the
Aachen art collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig are on show. The upstairs room predominantly
features picture tiles from the Rotterdam factory of Jan Aalmis (1674-1755).

The downstairs room is decorated – in the style of a book of samples – with Fayence tiles from
the 16th to 19th century. The cobalt-blue tiles with their white backgrounds – inspired by
Chinese porcelain – are far older than the manganese-purple tiles, which only became popular
in the 18th century. Completely tiled rooms were not common, but they often featured in
aristocratic summer residences and particularly in town houses of the upper middle class in
rooms that were mainly used in summer because they remained cooler than conventionally
decorated rooms.