House 83.5

A colossus of porcelain towers four meters towards the ceiling: the Empire State Building of New York. The work, entitled House 83.5, exists out of hundreds of relief tiles which Jill Magid made at De Porseleyne Fles in Delft. Displayed on a shelf alongside the Delft Blue tower is the complete collection of KLM miniature houses, numbered 1 - 83. The miniatures are modelled after characteristic "Old Dutch Houses", filled with the Bols Royal Jenever alcohol, and given away as "drinks" to First Class passengers—avoiding a law that disallows airline companies from giving gifts to its passengers. The KLM miniatures are highly collectable and exist as status symbols. (A dutch house chosen to be represented as a KLM miniature benefits from a significant increase in its property value). Both the scale of Magid's tower and the miniatures are 1:100 proportion to the original buildings. In a desire to make a work of Dutch Royalty, Magid gained official permission from KLM to name her porcelain Empire State Building House #83.5. KLM. KLM introduced Magid's House to passengers in their in-flight magazine, The Flying Dutchman.