By Isla Quinn
Look at the tin. A nurse in a white veil carries a tray. On the tray is a cup, and beside the cup a tin of cocoa. On that tin is a nurse, and she is carrying a tray.
It could go on for ever. It does not, because the print runs out. But the picture is why a word for infinite pictures-within-pictures is also the name of a Dutch cocoa brand.
Where it starts
Droste is a Dutch cocoa brand from Haarlem. We found no company page that mentions the nurse, so we give no founder, designer or introduction year.
What is on the tin
A museum record from the Bright Museum in Victoria, Australia, describes a hinged tin dated about 1920, with the nurse on the sides in a head veil and a white armband, carrying a tray with a cocoa tin and a white mug with a red band at the rim. The same record says the front carries the royal crest of Queen Emma on a pale green ground, which the company was allowed to use from 1898, and that the back shows a badge with fourteen gold medals and the names of cities from 1898 to 1904.
Dates in order
- 1898: royal crest granted, according to the Bright Museum record.
- About 1920: the date the Bright Museum gives for its tin.
How the name Droste effect came about
The Droste effect is a picture that appears recursively inside itself, named after the cocoa brand. In art history the technique is called mise en abyme.
M. C. Escher’s lithograph Print Gallery is the usual next example of a picture that contains itself.
The artist’s name
A second museum record, from Puke Ariki in New Plymouth, New Zealand, describes a Droste & Co. tin of Haarlem with four panels showing different scenes, in gold, red, green, white, blue and brown, but gives no date for it.
Questions a buyer would ask
How old is a tin like this? The Bright Museum says its tin is at least a second version of the design, modified over time, so dating by design alone is uncertain. Ask for the maker’s marks and any date the seller can document.
Quick answers
Why is it called the Droste effect? According to Wikipedia, the effect is named after the Dutch cocoa brand Droste, whose tins showed a nurse carrying a tin with the same picture on it.
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