Jacob de Wilde

De Wilde's collection was housed in the Museum Wildeanum, built behind the family home on Keizersgracht 333[3] which he rented from 1682 [4] and then bought in 1708, and extending behind the adjacent properties on 335 and 337.

Two catalogs exist, both with engravings by his daughter Maria de Wilde: Signa antiqua e museo Jacobi de Wilde (statuettes, 1700) and Gemma selecta antiqua e museo Jacobi de Wilde (coins and gems, 1703) but not all items were as antique as was claimed in the catalog: according to Joaneath Spicer, at least one of the statuettes, a candlestick modeled on the Candlestick in the shape of a Hercules by Peter Vischer the Younger (now in the Walters Art Museum), was in fact not Roman but rather of much more recent, Northern European origin.

[6] In the engraving, two men sit facing each other across a table surrounded by book cases and scientific instruments (de Wilde was proud of his interest in and experience with astronomy[6]); the tsar, on the right, can be identified by the double-headed eagle at his feet, an element of the coat of arms of Russia.

[13] Scotsman Robert Erskine (1677–1718), chief physician and adviser to Peter the Great, studied de Wilde's collection (and many others) in the planning and design of the tsar's Kunstkamera.

[13] The Alsatian Johann Daniel Schumacher, Erskine's secretary and court librarian in Saint Petersburg, visited the collection in 1721, reportedly a few months after de Wilde's death.