Interesting account book of the well-known banking house and stockbroker's firm Vlaer & Kol in Utrecht, administering financial transactions for its private customers in and around Utrecht, during the years 1818 to 1821. Included are well-known names of eminent and noble families such as Bentinck, Van der Capellen, Feith, Hardenbroeck, Heeckeren, Van Lijnden, Ram, Renesse, Tuijl van Serooskerken, Taets van Amerongen and Utenhove. Notably, the names and titles of numerous dowagers and other noble women in their own right are also included, separately from their family members. The names are listed in an alphabetical index, bound at the front of the volume. Many original accounts, bonds, letters and other documents are bound in, pasted in, attached with sealing wax or pins, or loosely inserted.
During this period Everard Kol (1753-1824) ran the bank, also administering the many financial transactions of his son ("mijn zoon") Jan Kol II (1789-1848), who would succeed his father in 1824. The firm was established in Utrecht in 1748 by Jan Kol I (1726-1805) and evolved to become the most important bank in Utrecht, later housed in the remarkable (still existing) building opposite the Utrecht town hall on the Oude Gracht, better known as "De Winkel van Sinkel".
Although most of the firms archives are in the Utrecht City Archives (see the inventory by Van der Beek & Andries), the account books for the years 1810 to 1848 are lacking in their collection.
The binding is stained and slightly tattered, with tears in the backstrip, and has come loose from the bookblock at the hinges, so that the sewing is somewhat loose and a few leaves detached, but otherwise internally in very good condition. See: G. van der Beek & J. C. Andries, Inventaris van de archieven van de families Kol, van de bankiersfirma's Vlaer & Kol, Kol & Co ... Utrecht, Utrechts Archief, 1980.