- Museum number
- 1844,0425.26.1
- Description
-
Design for a dagger and scabbard with a nude couple (Adam and Eve?); and leaf ornaments; with alternative designs for the hilt; silhouetted. 1536
Engraving
- Production date
- 1536
- Dimensions
-
Height: 19 millimetres (Hilt design)
-
Height: 16 millimetres (Monogram)
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Height: 324 millimetres
-
Width: 22 millimetres
-
Width: 29 millimetres
-
Width: 90 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- See G. Bartrum, 'German Renaissance Prints', exh. cat., BM, London 1995, cat. 183.
Text from Bartrum 1995
Literature: Bartsch, 259; Hollstein, p.122; Heppe, 64
Aldegrever's work shows more than any other artist since Schongauer the close association that persisted between the engravers' and goldsmiths' professions. About one hundred of his engravings are designs for ornament, of which his designs for goldsmiths' work fall into the period 1528-39. He produced seventeen designs for sheaths of swords, daggers or domestic knives, most of which show the sheaths alone. 1844,0425.26(1-3) display large-scale designs for the scabbard and hilt; they represent his most impressive achievement in this genre and are probably the most famous ornament prints of the period. Such objects would have been extremely costly to realise and were intended for ceremonial use by the nobility or wealthy patrician families. Daggers of this type are seen buckled to the men in Aldegrever's engravings of wedding dancers of 1538 (such as Bartsch, 145, 147, 164-5) and in drawings by Urs Graf and others. For further literature on ornamental daggers, see H.Schneider, 'Der Schweizerdolch: Waffen und kultur-geschichtliche Entwicklung mit vollständiger Dokurnentation der bekannten Originate und Kopien', Zurich, 1977.
Today these engravings are very rare, particularly sheets which have not been trimmed to the outlines of the designs; some account of surviving impressions is given in N.G.Stogdon, 'Oh Happy State . . ..', catalogue vii, New York, N.G.Stogdon Inc., 1989, under nos 27-8. The practice of silhouetting is related to the transfer of designs by goldsmiths, for it is consistently seen jewellery designs, such as the large number of small drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger in the British Museum (see Rowlands, 329-71).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995 Jun-Oct, BM, 'German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550', no.183
1996 Jun-Aug, Canterbury, Royal Mus and AG, German Renaissance Prints
1996 Nov-Dec, Edinburgh, NG of Scotland, German Renaissance Prints
1997 Jan-Mar, Cardiff, Nat Mus of Wales, German Renaissance Prints
1997 Apr-May, Llandudno, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, German Renaissance Prints
1997 Oct-Dec, Norwich, Sainsbury Centre, German Renaissance Prints
- Acquisition date
- 1844
- Acquisition notes
- 1844,0425.1 to 27 cost £145 8s 6d in total. Individual prices have been entered when known.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1844,0425.26.1