Carved in the round, standing on an integrally-carved pedestal.

Good.

…; from the collection Frederik Hendrik Maschhaupt (1836-1878), to the museum, with numerous other objects (BK/NG-NM-8050 to -8119) for a total of fl. 3,000, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-8100

These almost identical figures of corn-carriers, one dated 1712 (shown here) the other 1715 (BK-NM-8099), were acquired in 1885, together with dozens of other items, from the collection Frederik Hendrik Maschhaupt, a member of the board of the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap in Amsterdam. His collection contained numerous attributes from the Dutch, and in particular Amsterdam, guild system. The acquisition also included a corn-lifter, a corn-carrier and a corn-measurer (BK-NM-8057-A, -B and -C), a brass corn-carrier (BK-NM-8101),¹¹O. ter Kuile, Koper en brons (Catalogi van de verzameling kunstnijverheid van het Rijksmuseum van Amsterdam 1), coll. cat. Amsterdam 1986, no. 80. and two larger peat-carriers in wood and polychromed plaster (NG-NM-8055 and BK-NM-8056). Full-length figures like these formed the ‘trademark’ of a particular guild and apart from being used sculpturally, they also featured on funerary shields, façade stones, guild pillows and guild badges. Larger examples like the two peat-carriers in the Rijksmuseum mentioned here, and the two corn-carriers in the Amsterdam Museum of 1678 and 1716,²²M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, nos. 162 and 257. were probably displayed in the front section or in the taproom of the guild house, or at inns in the surroundings. In the Southern Netherlands they can also be found in the carved tops of procession torches.³³A. de Vries, Ingelijst werk: De verbeelding van arbeid en beroep in de vroegmoderne Nederlanden, 2003 (unpublished diss., University of Amsterdam, p. 152. There are two examples, derived from an early-sixteenth century procession torch of the Antwerp peat-carriers’ guild, in Museum Vleeshuis in Antwerp.⁴⁴Antwerp, Musuem Vleeshuis, inv. nos. 25.C.14b and 15.C. 14c, see KIK-IRPA, object nos. 144491 and -92. It is not known what the smaller figures were used for, but no doubt they had some connection with the guilds system. Perhaps they were given to members entering or retiring from the guild.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 404; M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, p. 215 (under no. 161)

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'anonymous, Corn-Carrier, Northern Netherlands, 1712', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035844