On the question of the production of jewellery from such engraved
designs, it is interesting to note the several points of similarity that
exist in the procedure of the ornamentists of the sixteenth century and
that of the English furniture-designers of the eighteenth. In both cases
the original producers of the designs were practical craftsmen, who
certainly executed objects after their published patterns; while the
patterns themselves were employed extensively as models. In both cases,
too, it is quite evident that in a number of instances fanciful designs
were produced which were never carried out. Hence one can readily
understand the difficulties that are encountered in attempting to
determine the provenance of such small and portable objects as personal
jewels, the engraved designs for which were in like manner widely
distributed. But there is the strong probability, after all, that the
greater number of jewels, after engraved designs of German origin, were
executed in, or not very far distant from the locality in which the
designs originated.
If designs are considered insufficient for the identification of jewels,
there exists a means much more certain, and one which should surely
prevent the attribution to Italians of jewels unquestionably the work of
German craftsmen. It may be remembered that Cellini in his _Trattati_,
in dealing with the goldsmith's art, advised jewellers to preserve
castings in lead of their works in gold and silver. In many cases
Cellini's recommendation has been literally carried out, and a
considerable number of proofs struck by German jewellers of details of
their jewels have fortunately come down to us. The Bavarian National
Museum at Munich contains a highly important collection of these leaden
casts, being a complete series used by a family of gold and silver
workers in Augsburg for upwards of 250 years (from about 1550 to 1800).
The jewellers of Augsburg were among the first in Europe, and these
models of their productions, bearing strong traces of the influence of
contemporary ornamentists, correspond in many details with original
jewels dating from those times.
Examples of these lead models for jewellery exist in other collections,
such as the Historical Museum at Basle. Of the same material but of
infinitely higher artistic importance, are the lead models by the hand
of Peter Flötner of Nuremberg. In addition to engraved designs, Flötner
executed models for goldsmiths, carved in stone and boxwood. From
these--of which original examples have survived--casts (so-called
plaquettes) were made in lead, which were used as patterns for craftsmen
in the same manner as engravings of ornament. Flötner's models, though
issued mainly for workers in gold and silver plate, were employed also
by the jewellers, and exercised considerable influence on their
productions.
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