On the origins of so-called "Dutch" gables

Amsterdam -and for that matter the other historic trade cities in Holland- are famed for their streetscapes of tall narrow houses with decorative gable tops. Often all examples of decorative shapely gable ends are gathered under the term "Dutch gable". The most abundant of these, the stepped gable, should however not be included. The stepped gable is not particularly Dutch, nor is it typical for townhouses.

Stepped gables were already used in Romanesque and Gothic architecture, especially in continental Europe, for decorative facades (Schmuckgiebel or Prunkgiebel in German) on castles, grain stores, monasteries, convents, churches and gate buildings. The steps are usually elongated or capped, in Gothic architecture they often terminate in a pinnacle or finial,  or they are crenelated. The use of stepped gables is closely linked to high pitched roofs in a climate with high rainfall. So when the city authorities tried to prevent fire by banning houses built in wood and with thatched roofs the new stone or brick-built houses were often adorned by a more decorative stepped gable on the front facade than the standard triangular gable end. This process was pushed through first in the cities and towns of the Rhineland and the Low Countries.

Especially in the Flemish cities the governing elite and merchants used their houses as a representation of their wealth and status. This lead to an inventive use of stone elements in combination with brick, the use of coloured bricks and the use of intricate brick bond patterns. Also the gable end becomes a feature, in particular in cases where an older house was updated by erecting a new facade on the side of the street. A high gable end could in those cases serve as an effective means of hiding the older roof from sight. A Dutch gable (or Flemish gable) is a gable end whose sides have been reworked to flank a central elongated section of the facade that is topped by some sort of pediment or fronton. Most of the gables of this type should be classed either as a Clock gable (Klokgevel) or Neck gable (Halsgevel). The Spout gable (Tuitgevel) is a very restrained variation on the triangular gable end with raised "shoulders" and a flat-topped elongated section that replaces the gable tip (the "spout").

The stepped gable is historically speaking not a type of Dutch gable, but this type does dominate the older buildings in the Low Countries. On the left two 17^th century examples from Geertruidenberg (NL). The house on the right has replacement windows, the facade on the left shows the original arrangement. In the middle two much older examples from Lièrre (B) with stone casements around the windows. The example from Herentals (B) shows that stepped gables weren't only used for gable end but could also be utilised for emphasizing the entrance by a crow-stepped dormer.

The so-called Dutch gable was a notable feature of Renaissance architecture in the Low Countries and the Rhineland. The more decorative and elaborate types with their curves and volutes are quickly absorbed into Baroque architecture. The spread of these Neck, Clock, and Spout gables was mainly the result of the spread of commercial enterprise and merchants, who brought with them their fancy brick-built facades. The first Neck gable to be built in Amsterdam in 1638 was by (Flemish-born) Philip Vingboons. This was no less than 70 years after the type had been pioneered in Antwerp (the Neck gable on the City Hall dates from 1565). 

On the left to examples of elaborate gables in Antwerp. The left is best characterised as an elevated Clock gable with a crowning fronton and double voluted corners. The same volutes are used on the underside of the tiered, elongated Neck gable on the right with curved and voluted flank pieces with additional obelisks, balls and a crowning statue atop a closed fronton or pediment. This row of houses on the Old Market of Antwerp (middle) shows the Renaissance Stepped gables with a revival-style Neck gable with rounded pediment and decorative balustrade ending in vases. This row of houses on the Market in Ekeren just north of Antwerp (right) shows that Dutch gables were also used in small towns. Between the three Stepped gables we see an example of a broken or stepped Spout gable with decorative balls on each shoulder and a larger bal atop the "spout".

Until about 1550 all houses in Amsterdam had been constructed in wood, despite regulations against this. After the destructive fire of 1452 the city council had decreed that henceforth all dividing walls should be built in brick. Houses were still built in wood with planked facades and triangular wooden gable ends. Between 1600 and 1650 -after the city had been overrun by Flemish immigrants after the fall of Antwerp and other southern cities- all gables in wood were replaced by Stepped gables (Trapgevel) in brick or Spout gables in brick and stone, often with ornamented side extensions and a fronton or ornament on top. Especially in the second half of the 17th en the whole of the 18th century the Neck gable and Clock gable become the height of fashion, becoming more elaborate, sometimes even tiered and adorned with carved stone coifs and gilded ornaments and statues. These types of Dutch gables are very shapely and were constructed using both brick (for the central part of the "bell" or "neck") and sandstone or plastered brick for the voluted sides, for the clawed inserts (of the Neck gable), for the fronton or coif and for the trims and bandings.

After 1800 the so-called Dutch gable fell out of fashion and many were taken down and replaced with parapet gables. During the age of revival architecture around 1900 many new examples of Dutch gables were built, often in a mixed idiom that was purely decorative.