KLM’s 105th Delft Blue House collectible honors a mansion on 3 canals

Amenity kit cases that can double as evening purses and salt and pepper shakers in the shape of airplanes are among the cool AvGeek things you can swipe off airplanes guilt-free.

But if you fly on a KLM intercontinental business-class flight, you can walk off the plane with a house.

Granted, it’s a miniature house ... a numbered, collectible, miniature Delft Blue house in the shape of a notable historic or landmark building in the Netherlands or abroad, to be exact.

And did we mention it’s filled with Bols Genever, a Dutch gin?

KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, began gifting its intercontinental first- and business-class passengers these tiny houses in the 1950s. The tradition began because a cocktail served in a collectible container was how the carrier cleverly skirted restrictions limiting the value of gifts that passengers could receive from airlines.

In 1994, on the carrier’s 75th birthday, a catch-up batch of houses was issued to match the number of houses to the age of the airline. Nowadays, a new house is released with fanfare each year on Oct. 7, KLM’s birthday.

This year, to celebrate KLM’s 105th anniversary, the airline revealed its 105th Delft Blue House.

This one honors a 17th-century heritage house in Amsterdam known officially as “Het Huis aan de Drie Grachten," or "The House on Three Canals." Built in the Dutch Renaissance style and renovated in 1909, the Dutch national monument faces a canal on, you guessed it, three sides and has both diagonal and straight angles.

“It’s not the oldest house in Amsterdam, but it’s the oldest privately owned house in Amsterdam and one of the most photographed monuments in the city,” said historian Mark Zegeling during a canal tour of this and other Amsterdam buildings that have served as models for KLM’s miniature Delft Blue houses over the years. “You can see from the three sides that the building — which was originally two buildings — has three different facades, or faces.”

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Zegeling is the author of “Little Kingdom by the Sea,” a regularly updated two-book set with detailed descriptions and histories of each building in the KLM Delft Blue House series.

Each year, the identity of KLM’s newest Delft Blue House is kept tightly under wraps until the evening of the big reveal. As is tradition, the big reveal takes place at a celebration held either in the building being featured or in a building nearby each year.

This year was no exception. On Oct. 7, KLM CEO Marjan Rintel presented the first copy of the Delft Blue miniature of The House on Three Canals to Arthur van Dijk, the king’s commissioner for the province of North Holland. Because the house is privately owned, the reveal party took place nearby at the Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam hotel.

KLM’s birthday and the new Delft Blue miniature house reveal come at a “challenging time” for the carrier, Rintel acknowledged in a pre-event press conference. While the airline is investing billions in new, more efficient aircraft, it is facing “headwinds” linked to its rising costs for equipment, staffing and airport fees, she said.

As a result, Rintel said, the airline has started a program to reduce costs, increase productivity and increase network capacity, especially on long-haul flights.

“We will look at each and every investment,” she said. “However, in our 105-year history, we have often faced headwinds, and KLM has always shown itself to be created and resilient in overcoming them.”

When asked if cutting out or cutting back on the Delft Blue House program might be part of the cost reductions being considered, Rintel said, “We look at everything but not the Delft Blue houses. We’re well known for it and it will stay as part of our brand.”

The latest KLM Delft Blue House honoring The House on Three Canals joins 104 other notable buildings in the series.

In 2023, KLM’s Delft Blue House No. 104 honored Valkenburg railway station, the oldest existing train station in the Netherlands.

In 2021, the Delftware miniature house No. 102 in the series portrayed Amsterdam’s stunning Tuschinski Theatre, which Time Out magazine voted the most beautiful cinema in the world.

And in 2016, KLM’s 97th miniature Delftware house was a likeness of the Hotel New York in Rotterdam, which occupies the former headquarters of Holland America Line.

In the past, KLM has honored everything from the Anne Frank House (No. 47) and the Rembrandt House Museum (No. 48) to Mata Hari’s love nest (No. 26) and the Heineken Brewery (No. 95) with a KLM Delft Blue miniature version.

There are several ways to get your own little KLM Delft House. If you’re flying business class on a KLM intercontinental flight, you’ll be able to choose a current or past year’s little house model from a cart a flight attendant will roll down the aisle just before the end of the flight.

Many Delft houses from past years are also offered on eBay and in antique and secondhand shops around Amsterdam. If you end up with duplicates or have a specific year’s miniature house in mind, you can try swapping one little house that you have for another at the KLM Crown Lounge in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), where all the models are on display, though not all are available for swapping.

Once your collection starts to grow, you can track it on the KLM Houses app, and, when in Amsterdam, you can embark on a self-guided walking tour that takes you past dozens of the full-size homes and buildings portrayed in this highly collectible series of tiny Delftware miniatures.

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