DOI article:
The editor's room
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17294#0254
New Publications
FIRST PRIZE (COMP. B XVIII.) " CEOLNOTH "
this clever young artist will shortly appear in The
Studio, in which we hope to show examples of
Mr. Robinson's characteristic designs.
Die Berliner Goldschmiede-Znnft, von ihrein
Entstehen bis zum Jahre 1800. By Friedrich
Sarre. (Berlin : J. A. Stargardt.)—The beautiful
art of the worker in gold must ever be full of fasci-
nation were it for aesthetic reasons alone ; but here
in this history of the Goldsmiths Company of
Berlin, there is, in addition to the purely artistic
merits of the subject, much that will appeal to the
student of history, and to all those who are inte-
rested in the rise and development of these great
commercial guilds of which we in England have in
our City Companies so many splendid examples.
The opening pages of Herr Sarre's sumptuous book
contain a vivid picture of the restless struggle
between the German State authorities on the one
hand and the municipalities on the other, which
marked the end of the Middle Ages, and reached
its height about the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. One Kurfiirst, or Reigning Prince, after
another used his almost unlimited powers to
restrict and hamper the corporate spirit by means
of " reforming " the various Guilds, and it was not
until the reign of Friedrich William I. that certain
"general privileges for the Guilds and Crafts of the
Brandenburg electorate " were granted. This pro-
clamation was ratified shortly after by Joachim II.,
and the Goldsmiths Company of Berlin and
Cologne was regularly constituted in the year 1555.
A facsimile of the quaint old document, setting
forth the objects of the corporation, and bearing
the signatures and trade-marks of the twenty-three
master goldsmiths, founders of the Guild, is not
the least interesting feature of Herr Sarre's work,
which deals at considerable length in the succeeding
chapters with the history of the Company and with
German goldsmiths' work generally up to the end
of last century. One chapter is devoted to an ex-
planation of the makers' marks to be found on
existing work ; another gives a complete chrono-
logical list of the goldsmiths established in Berlin
from 1462 to 1800, with copious biographical notes
in the case of the more famous craftsmen, such as
Bernhardt Quippe, Daniel Mannlich, Christian
Lieberkiihn, and Johann Daniel Sandrart. Four
copper-plate portraits of celebrated Court gold-
smiths and jewellers, and ten photographs of gold
work by well-known masters, together with nurae-
SECOND PRIZE (COMP. B XVIII.)
XI
FIRST PRIZE (COMP. B XVIII.) " CEOLNOTH "
this clever young artist will shortly appear in The
Studio, in which we hope to show examples of
Mr. Robinson's characteristic designs.
Die Berliner Goldschmiede-Znnft, von ihrein
Entstehen bis zum Jahre 1800. By Friedrich
Sarre. (Berlin : J. A. Stargardt.)—The beautiful
art of the worker in gold must ever be full of fasci-
nation were it for aesthetic reasons alone ; but here
in this history of the Goldsmiths Company of
Berlin, there is, in addition to the purely artistic
merits of the subject, much that will appeal to the
student of history, and to all those who are inte-
rested in the rise and development of these great
commercial guilds of which we in England have in
our City Companies so many splendid examples.
The opening pages of Herr Sarre's sumptuous book
contain a vivid picture of the restless struggle
between the German State authorities on the one
hand and the municipalities on the other, which
marked the end of the Middle Ages, and reached
its height about the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. One Kurfiirst, or Reigning Prince, after
another used his almost unlimited powers to
restrict and hamper the corporate spirit by means
of " reforming " the various Guilds, and it was not
until the reign of Friedrich William I. that certain
"general privileges for the Guilds and Crafts of the
Brandenburg electorate " were granted. This pro-
clamation was ratified shortly after by Joachim II.,
and the Goldsmiths Company of Berlin and
Cologne was regularly constituted in the year 1555.
A facsimile of the quaint old document, setting
forth the objects of the corporation, and bearing
the signatures and trade-marks of the twenty-three
master goldsmiths, founders of the Guild, is not
the least interesting feature of Herr Sarre's work,
which deals at considerable length in the succeeding
chapters with the history of the Company and with
German goldsmiths' work generally up to the end
of last century. One chapter is devoted to an ex-
planation of the makers' marks to be found on
existing work ; another gives a complete chrono-
logical list of the goldsmiths established in Berlin
from 1462 to 1800, with copious biographical notes
in the case of the more famous craftsmen, such as
Bernhardt Quippe, Daniel Mannlich, Christian
Lieberkiihn, and Johann Daniel Sandrart. Four
copper-plate portraits of celebrated Court gold-
smiths and jewellers, and ten photographs of gold
work by well-known masters, together with nurae-
SECOND PRIZE (COMP. B XVIII.)
XI