The Dutch East India Company granted erven (plots) to these employees, who would later play important roles as citizens of the colony.

Huysing became a Vryburgher (or Vrijburgher) on 2 January 1684, a status in which an employee of the VOC was released from their contractual obligations to the company and permitted to farm, become a tradesman, or work for others.

[6] Ironically, Huysing would be instrumental in getting Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the governor of the Cape Colony, recalled on charges of corruption.

Erven 7 and 8, on the Strand Street side, were granted by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel to Reijnier Smedinga in 1699 and 1701 respectively.

[5] The early dwelling, now substantially extended and altered, was built in 1701 by Reijnier Smedinga, silversmith, goldsmith, jeweller and joint assayer to the Dutch East India Company.

His enjoyment of the property was brief, for in 1723 the minutes of the Council of Policy at the Cape of Good Hope begin to refer to Claas van Donselaar,[9] a soldier who had been released from his contract on 4 May 1723, as the lessee of the wine license.

[3] A German carpenter, Johan Fredrik Willem Böttiger, the owner from 1748 to 1771 increased the area of the property and enlarged the house.

[15] Margaretha Jacoba Smuts, the widow of the president of the Burgher Council, Hendrik Justinus de Wet, acquired the property in 1806.

Marie de Wet married Johan Koopmans in 1864 and it is this union that gave rise to the current name of the house.

The death of Johan Koopmans in 1880, sent Maria into an extended period of mourning, during which she travelled abroad, meeting King William III of the Netherlands.

Ons Land, a Dutch-language newspaper, had begun the campaign for the preservation of the Koopmans-de Wet House as a historical monument.

Lionel Philipps moved that the house and contents be preserved for the nation and that General and Executive Committees be formed to engage in fundraising and other necessary activities.

[2] To drum up publicity, Olga Racster began contributing a series of articles on the house and its contents to the Cape Times.

On the night of 27 February 1913, Florence Phillips accompanied by Mrs. Grace Douglas Pennant, Mrs. Marloth, and Dr. Purcell, went with Lionel in a deputation to appeal to the Cape Town City Council itself.

Lionel and Senator Sir Meiring Beck[19] addressed the council with the result of £1000 being voted (later reduced to £500 by a meeting of ratepayers).

Amid bitter political division, the House of Assembly united briefly behind a national issue and allocated £3000 for the purchase of furniture.

The painter Edward Roworth, who was in 1941 to be made director of the South African National Gallery, assisted in the selection of the pictures.

William R. Morrison, an Africana dealer and collector, wrote ten highly critical reports in the Cape Times, and on the evening of the first day the Government allocation of public funds came under heavy attack in the House and had to be defended by Lionel Philips and Abraham Fischer.

Bargains included a Louis XVI ormolu box, with mother of pearl lid, and inlaid enamel, by Vervain, sold for 26 shillings.

Lionel Phillips and his committee met in the night of 7 April, to formally resolve to buy the house and then hand it over to the South African Museum.

[21] Woodward[20] believes Marie Koopmans-de Wet amassed the first important ceramics collection in South Africa.

Lady Charlotte Guest, herself a knowledgeable collector of ceramics, visited Marie and Margaretha at home on 10 December 1883 and wrote in her journal of "a great deal of good china".

[20] For whatever reason, Purcell chose to purchase ceramics typical of the prosperous town house of the early nineteenth century Cape, and not necessarily of the original collection.

It is a bottle shaped vase, enamelled in famille rose with sprays of fruiting peach, bearing the Ch'ien Lung seal mark and of the period.

[20] Restorations were led by Dr. Purcell, a zoologist and biologist, who brought a scientific rigour to the process, documenting every stage meticulously.

[3] When Purcell died on 3 October 1919, Florence Phillips contributed £10 toward a memorial tablet, designed by architect Joseph Michael Solomon, with a likeness in bas-relief modelled by Moses Kottler.

The display cabinet on stand dates from 1775 to 1800 and houses a selection of late 18th and early 19th century silver tableware, including the Van Breda service.

[20] Important ceramics in this room include a covered baluster jar which dates from the 17th century, which is one of the earliest pieces in the house.

It rests on claw feet and retains its original silver escutcheons and handles by Daniel Heinrich Schmidt, a Cape silversmith.

[28] The cheval mirror (1810–1820), in the French Empire style, was reputedly part of the cargo intended for Napoleon Bonaparte's friend, Henri Gatien Bertrand, who stayed with him when he was banished to St. Helena.