The museum's name comes from one of two buildings in which it is housed: a small palace (hof means ‘royal court’) built in 1693 and later occupied by Marie Louise, dowager Princess of Orange.

[1] On Monday morning, 13 Feb 2023, someone broke into the museum and stole eleven "precious Chinese ceramics".

After she died, the building was split into three houses, and one of these later came into the hands of the Leeuwarden notary and art collectors Nanne Ottema (1874–1955) and his wife Grietje Kingma, who founded the museum during their lifetime in 1917.

[4] The Ottema-Kingma Stichting (foundation) keeps the tradition of the founders alive with an online database for the collection and associated library.

The museum also permanently exhibits the former studio of the Dutch ceramist Jan van der Vaart.