…; 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-8056

This figure of a peat-carrier was acquired in 1885, together with dozens of other items, from the collection of 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 boxwood corn-lifter, corn-carrier and 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. a relatively large figure of a peatman in wood (NG-NM-8055), and two separate boxwood figures of corn-carriers (BK-NM-8099 and -8100). Full-length figures like these formed the ‘trademark’ of a particular guild and apart from being used sculpturally, also featured on funerary shields, façade stones, guild pillows and guild badges. Larger examples like the present peat-carrier and the other one in the Rijksmuseum, as well as 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 de Vries, Ingelijst werk: De verbeelding van arbeid en beroep in de vroegmoderne Nederlanden, 2003 (unpublished diss., University of Amsterdam, p. 152.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, Museum 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 gifts given to members entering or retiring from the guild.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025