International studio (81.1925)

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scale, and he has a love of perfect finish and
exquisite detail, not only for its own sake but also
for what he can make it convey. Let us see what
he has told us. In the first place, remember, these
were the days of the great craft guilds, when no
slipshod or scamped work might pass. Notice the
fine finish of the woodwork, the mortised corner
and skilful fastening of the box in the upper right-
hand corner, the fluting on the edge of the shelves,
the graceful curve and acanthus leaf carved in the
supporting brackets. Then see, on the table, the
delicate skill displayed in the fine lines of the
pewter pen-case, and of the copper tinder-box,
remembering that these are not turned by ma-
chinery, but each is a little masterpiece from some
craftsman's hand. Much, too, is told of the extent
of the league's commerce and manufactures. A
century earlier, the Persian tablecloth would have
entered Europe by the port of Venice, across the
Brenner Pass, and thence down the Rhine. By
this route, also, would have come, from China,
the rose-colored silk and heavy velvet of the
merchant's attire, and either Damascus or India
might have produced the exquisitely wrought
arabesques on the bronze ball containing twine.
But in 1532 the great guilds of Bruges and Ant-
werp were carrying on manufactures in textiles
and metal work which hardly could be distin-
guished from the finest Oriental productions, and,
being less in peril from pirates and highway rob-
bers— "land-rats and water-rats" — the "just
prices" for them could be fixed at lesser rates than
before. No other city, yet, had produced crafts-
men to equal the glass-blowers of Murano, how-
ever, and the slender grace of the crystal flower
vase is true Venetian workmanship. The small
steelyard, or scales, was a most necessary part ol
every merchant's equipment. Spices, drugs, jewels,
and, above all, coins, must be accurately weighed.
Milled edges were not yet used, so there was a
constant tendency on the part of the unscrupulous
to shave off a little soft gold. In the open pen-case
wre may see various coins that are to have their
full value carefully tested. On the corner of the
shelf hangs a "Nuremberg egg." This primitive
parent of our modern watch was invented in
Nuremberg about 1500 by Peter Hele and con-
tained the miniature works of a clock within a
globular case—hence the name. There was no
dial, but it struck every hour. It was equipped
with a sort of pendulum, at first of catgut, with a
weight like a truncated cone; but later, as in the
picture, an articulated steel chain was used. Our
friend, George Gisze, was evidently quite up-to-
date, for this device came into use only about a
year before that on the picture—1532.

We see slips of paper with seals attached.
These were preserved as- receipts from various
transactions. The exact folding of a letter before
envelopes were used can be clearly seen, and
phrases from the manuscripts can be deciphered
with a good glass. Most of it is correspondence
with Lubeck, head city of the League, except the
letter in the merchant's hand, a private one, of
which more anon. Some may refer to the rise
into prominence in the Burgher Committee of
Jiirgen WuIIenweber, who was to become the last
great Hanseatic leader; others may complain that
Gustavus Vasa, "the ox-driver" whom Lubeck
had supported in his struggle for the crown, was
rapidly and vigorously drawing Sweden away from
commercial allegiance to the League. The Lii-
beckers considered Vasa's determination to sup-
port the trade of the Swedish merchants distinctly
unkind, and felt that he should be happy to carry
out the spirit of their old byword:

"Was willst du begehren mehr
"Als die alte Liibscbe Ehr?"

The thick letter-case, almost bursting its
stamped, red-leather straps, doubtless contains
many such documents. The heavy silver handle of
the great Hansa seal, used for all official corre-
spondence, lies, as in most of Holbein's other por-
traits of the League Merchants, conspicuously in
the foreground. Too well known were its design
of the imperial double eagle and the motto,
"Signum Civitatum Maritimarum," for the artist
to delay in depicting it, but the seal ring which
lies near on the table is clearly engraved with the
arms of the Gisze family. The glitter of the carved
steel of the sword-hilt shows us also that this
merchant claimed gentle blood; but apart from
that, every member of the Steelyard kept a full
equipment of defensive armor in his office, for
riots sometimes broke out in London against the
foreigners who throttled English trade, and the
Hansa Merchants never knew when they might
be again called upon to pronounce "bread and
cheese" in true English fashion, as in the wild
days of the peasants' revolt. The massive keys
hanging in the corner remind us, also, of the close
lock and guard of the Steelyard gates, shutting in
this walled retreat at nine o'clock each night, and
they let us know, too, that Master Gisze was one
of the twelve councillors who governed this com-
munity of commerce. Only six years before,
Henry VIII had forced an entrance with his
soldiery into the Steelyard to search for any
writings of the arch-heretic, Martin Luther. Sus-
picious, as he was, of the fact that both the new
learning and the new faith were making their

JUNE I925

two hundred one