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

Good.

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

Object number: BK-NM-8057-A

This ensemble of boxwood figures depicts the three occupations that in some Dutch cities were united in one guild, the so-called Guild of the corn-measurers, corn-lifters and corn-carriers (Korenmeters-, korenheffers- en korendragersgilde). The pieces feature a corn-measurer with a corn measure over his arm (BK-NM-8057-C), a corn-lifter with a shovel on his shoulder (shown here) and a corn-carrier pulling or pushing a missing barrow (BK-NM-8057-B). The latter figure carries on his head a sack filled with grain on which a housemark is carved with the numbers 17 on either side, referring to the year 1717.

The ensemble 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. However, in Amsterdam, unlike in Haarlem, the occupations portrayed here were not united in one guild, meaning that the ensemble presumably did not originate in Amsterdam. The acquisition also included a brass corn-carrier (BK-NM-8101) which is almost identical to the present corn-carrier (BK-NM-8057-B) and is marked with the same year (1717),¹¹O. ter Kuile, Koper en brons (Catalogi van de verzameling kunstnijverheid van het Rijksmuseum van Amsterdam 1), coll. cat. Amsterdam 1986, no. 80. two smaller boxwood corn-carriers marked with the years 1712 and 1715 (BK-NM-8100 and BK-NM-8099), 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 occupation within a 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 and 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 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. 403; 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-Lifter, Northern Netherlands, 1717', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035841