Gilded silver miniature slaughtered pig stretched on a ladder, Pieter van Somerwil I
Height 9 cm, width 2.8 cm, length 5.5 cm. The weight 36 grams.
Marks; 1.) town mark Amsterdam, 10th Alphabet around 1708. NB. Silver objects of the 2nd standard (minimum 10-11 penningen/0.833-0.916*), with a maker’s mark, in combination with the depicted town mark, without year letter, were probably made between 1696 and 1734. In 1735, a new type of the Amsterdam town mark was introduced for 2nd grade silver, in combination with an attached year letter.
2.) a tree, the maker’s mark of Pieter van Somerwil I (active 1706-1753). 3.) Town mark city of Gouda without crown, used 1706 till 1727, for 2nd standard silver (minimum 10-11 penningen/ 0.833-0.916*). 4.) Crowned O, the duty mark 1807. 5.) The small letter V (flowery like), twice, overstrike, duty mark used 1814-1831. 6.) The small &=ET= étranger=foreign, import and duty mark French Empire (1809-1819). 7.).. ZII Dutch hallmark for used objects minimum 835/000 used 1953-2002. .8) Scratch mark, removal of silver by assayer.
*NB; The 2nd silver standard in Holland was only officially set by placard October 23, 1733, States of Holland & Westfriesland, at; 10 penningen (0.833). However the preamble of the placard shows that this silver standard was already common in 1661, and probably even before that. Officially the 2nd standard before 1733 was set at 11 penningen (0.916)
For the Dutch hallmarks see; https://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32028
This type of miniature is not intended for display in doll’s houses. Indeed by no means everyone could afford a doll’s house but many well-off burghers had a collection of miniature around early 18th century. They were displayed on shelves on the wall or in small cabinets. The figurine of a slaughtered pig, like other figurines were a separate category and were not put in doll’s houses.
Miniatures were first made Paris and much later also first in Amsterdam. Although children of the elite played with them, collecting them soon became a hobby for the wife’s of wealthy Amsterdam merchants and ruling elites. Cabinets were made into doll’s houses, which were furnished with silver miniatures. Truly and expensive hobby. The Amsterdam silversmith and specialist miniature maker Pieter van Somerwil, placed an advertisement in the Amsterdamsche Courant of May 9, 1737, in which he drew the readers' attention to his silver doll’s house miniatures: “It was made known to all silver shopkeepers that the silver doll’s house ware and stamped work was made and sold in Amsterdam by Pieter van Somerwil, master silversmith in the Handboogstraet, were it was sold by him and still maintained .”
Silver miniatures were also produced in a number of economically important Dutch cities other then Amsterdam but on a much smaller scale. Amsterdam silver miniatures were imitated in the Dutch cities of; Haarlem, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Dordrecht, Delft, Leiden, Middelburg and Groningen and Leeuwarden.
Why we have the town hallmark of Gouda on a miniature made and assayed in Amsterdam?
Miniatures were not made in the Dutch city of Gouda. The bourgeoisie that wanted to collect miniatures could of course travel to Amsterdam. Going from Gouda to Amsterdam by towing- barge took 8 hours but was a comfortable way of travelling. The Gouda silver guild, to meet the demand for miniatures, and to earn some money from it, allowed Amsterdam made miniatures, to be sold by the local silversmiths/shopkeepers in Gouda. Officially the Amsterdam miniatures, sold in Gouda, had to meet the applicable Gouda requirements regarding silver 2nd grade standard. Which should be the same as the Amsterdam’s 2nd standard silver. In Gouda, the Amsterdam made miniatures were checked by the guild, and after payment of stamp duty, provided with a Gouda city hallmark (without crown). It should be mentioned here that the Gouda guild was generally rather lax in applying regulations.
The few Amsterdam miniatures I know with the Gouda city hallmark were made around 1720-1742. In the middle of the 18th century there was grinding poverty in Gouda.
Gilded silver miniature of a slaughtered pig.
The silver miniature may not be pleasant to look at for everyone. A slaughtered pig, spread open on an upright ladder, against a candle lamp post, you may wonder whether a ladder is stable against a lamppost. Most of the organs have been removed from the body, except for the dark kidneys and the anus. Is this miniature a simple symbol for the butcher's profession or does it have a deeper meaning?
The slaughtered pig could also represent stinginess: folk tradition equated pigs that gorged themselves with miserly behaviour; only after death was their usefulness revealed (in the form of sufficient food from the former or a considerable inheritance through the latter)
Candlelight symbolizes the connection between heaven and earth and is therefore used to remember the dead.
November - Cornelis Dusart (1679 - 1704)
Seventeenth-century Dutch paintings of slaughtered oxen and pigs have their roots in medieval depictions of the labours of the months, specifically November, the peak slaughtering season.
The slaughter day, a few days before, the farmer's wife and the maid started to put together the things for the slaughter. On the day itself, nothing could go wrong. The kitchen, the work table, usually a door that was lifted from the hinges, and the leather (ladder) received an extra cleaning and were largely disinfected with soda water. The materials had to be clean and not damaged. An attempt was also made to keep the flies out as much as possible on the day of slaughter. Quite a lot was needed during the slaughter day.
Present were;
● A sturdy 'leather' (ladder).
● The hankholt or hakkesspier. A sturdy beam (a kind of coat rack) from which the pig was hung. The ends of the hankholt was thrust past the loosely cut sinews of the pig’s hind legs. The hangholt attached close to the top step.
● A basin for collecting the blood.
● A bucket to beat the blood into.
● A smooth beating stick or whisk.
● A sieve for straining the clots from the blood.
● A large tub full of hot water.
Women who had their monthly period were not allowed to participate in the slaughtering process in earlier years because they feared that the meat would not keep well. This phenomenon also occurred with butchers who forbade their wives to come near the brine tanks because the brine would then be spoiled.
When not necessary, the bladder was inflated, tied and dried. Then the kids had a soccer ball to play with. The bladder was also filled with dried peas so that a kind of rattle was created. Children often used the bladder for what is known as 'bladder kicking'. The bladder was then tied to a child's leg with a rope and the other children then tried to kick it to pieces. When that succeeded with a big bang, the child who had broken the bladder was the champion.
Barent Fabritius Slaughtered Pig, 1656, oil on canvas
Slaughtered Pig attributed to Caspar Netscher ca. 1660-62, oil on panel
The painting is simply composed, with the spread and eviscerated carcass displayed frontally at the centre and its severed head resting in a shallow wooden tub on a bench to the left. Most of the organs have been removed from the body, except for the dark kidneys and the anus. Peering out from behind the carcass is a young boy who blows air through a straw into the pig’s bladder. For obvious reasons, in Dutch genre paintings the motif of the slaughtered ox or pig is usually considered as a genre of art which uses symbolism to show the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. Most seventeenth-century (and earlier) depictions include one or more children, who inflate the animal’s bladder for use as a toy. This motif is a charmingly mundane manifestation of Homo bulla, which likens the fragility of human life to a delicate soap bubble. A print in a book of emblems published in 1712 shows children playing with an inflated pig’s bladder, accompanied by a verse that begins: “How hard you blow, o child of the world! You catch nothing but wind. The world is nothing more than a bladder filled with air”. The slaughtered pig could also represent avarice: folk tradition equated pigs gorging themselves with the behaviour of misers; only after death was their usefulness revealed (in the form of ample food from the former or a substantial inheritance via the latter.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/art ... tered-pig/
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/mijn/verz ... 913-VIII,4
About the silversmith;
Pieter van Somerwil I, active in Amsterdam, 1706-1753, his mark; tree. He was born 1686, son of Cornelis Somerwil, woolseperator and Hilletje Harmens. Master silversmith in 1706 and married with Geertruy Vergeel. Died in 1753. He has several children with his wife Geertruij Vergeel. Three of their children also become silversmith. Pieter is known for making miniatures. This miniature silver mainly concerns the doll’s goods for the doll’s houses of the ladies of the well-to-do bourgeoisie. He also made other small silver objects.
Peter.
Source reference; Gouds zilver werk van Goudse zilversmeden (tot 1813) Stedelijk museum, Gouda, 1980 page 5, silver standards used guild Gouda.
Amsterdamse zilversmeden en hun merken, K.A. Citroen, page Xiii, silver standards used guild Amsterdam and page 207 Pieter van Somerwil I
Tall and Small antique Dutch silver miniatures A. Aardewerk Antiquary Juwelier page 19-20-196-280
Goud- en Zilvermerken van Voet by L.B. Gans Premsela & Hamburger Amsterdam 2014
Waarborgholland, ˜Netherlands' Responsibility Marks since 1797
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Slaughtered Pig” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork ... tered-pig/ (accessed July 12, 2023).
