by Kajetan Fiedorowicz, Melbourne
Joost Daalder was born in the Netherlands and studied at Amsterdam, Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities before moving to New Zealand with his wife Truus in 1966 and then, in 1983 to Australia. They settled in Adelaide, where Joost was working as a Reader, then Professor of English at Flinders University, until his retirement in 2001. He was a specialist in the area of English Renaissance literature and will be remembered by his students as an inspiring teacher of William Shakespeare’s plays and poems.
But deep in his heart Joost had a special place for fine arts, material culture and ethnic jewellery and adornments in particular. Together with his wife, they have been arguably the most advanced collectors and scholars on that subject in this country. Their collection has been significant not only in terms of size, but also the quality. Their milestone book, based mainly on their own collection, titled Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment, was published in 2009. It is still the most serious work of its type ever published in Australia. In 2019 Joost and Truus Daalder donated their collection of contemporary jewellery to the Art Gallery of South Australia. On the occasion of the exhibition, a wonderful catalogue was published, which is a testimony to their well developed taste and in-depth knowledge.
Joost was very literate and active online. The specialised Facebook pages he founded attracted many thousands of followers and significantly contributed to the popularisation of knowledge in the field of ethnic adornments and collecting in general.
As a fellow collector I was fortunate to know Joost and Truus personally for some 20 years. We met on many private occasions and made many satisfactory deals, too. They were my good clients and I had many chances to experience their trust, honesty and personal warmth. I consider them good friends. I’ll be missing Joost and his outstanding loyalty and knowledge. The rather exotic and hermetic world of ethnic jewellery collectors has lost in him the cornerstone personality. We treated him as a friend, as an authority and our “professor emeritus”. He will be missed, remembered and quoted for years to come. R.I.P dear friend