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K Ø B E N H A V N S K E S V Æ R D F E G E R E
in favour o f the guilds as such, although the
state authorities often had to tolerate them.
In the field o f arms production in particular
the theory o f mercantilism was favourable to
home-supplies, the importance o f which in
case o f war was evident. Christian III had for
this reason established a Royal Armoury in
Copenhagen, and, in
1604
, Christian IV com
pleted a new Armoury building in which
gunsmiths and sword-cutlers had their work
shops. In the same w ay an armoury was built
at Elsinore where one W illum Hermansen is
mentioned as sword-cutler to the King in
16 2 5
. The sword-cutler who, in
16 36
, ob
tained a passport from Elsinore to Nykøbing
from Prince Christian, the King Elect, may
have been Johan Willumsen, probably a son
o f W illum Hermansen; a few years later, in
any case, Johan Willumsen worked for the
Prince at Nykøbing.
It is not known whether W illum Herman
sen at Elsinore was a foreigner. Many crafts
men were summoned to Denmark under Fre
derik II and Christian IV, among them the
following sword-cutlers: Ambrosius van
Brunsvig mentioned
1 5 7 2
-
8 1
, Hans von
Nürnberg
15 7 6
, the w idow o f Lamoral van
Wessel
159 7
and Pieter van Bassa
15 9 3
.
Between
1596
and
1644
the name Anders
Kohl occurs very frequently in the accounts,
covering a period o f so many years that we
must infer that there were at least two gene
rations o f sword-cutlers w ith the same name.
They may have belonged to the wellknown
Solingen fam ily o f smiths. From
1642
the
sword-cutler Marcus Kopper, a German by
birth, worked for Prince Christian at N ykø
bing; he represents the first o f four genera
tions in that family.
The sort o f work delivered by the sword-
cutlers can also be deduced from the accounts,
and it is astonishing how much o f their skill
and energy was spent upon simple repair
w ork to hilts and scabbards, the grinding o f
blades, gilding o f nails and other trifling af
fairs. N ow and then costly pieces with hilts
o f gold, silver and enamel are also mentioned,
although many o f the very finest swords were
furnished by goldsmiths. In some cases a
sword-cutler may have made the hilt o f iron
and passed it on to the goldsmith who under
took the gilding, enamelling and jeweller’s
work.
An attempt was made in
16 13
by Christian
IV to relieve the restrictions placed upon pro
duction by the guilds, which he in that year
ordered to be abolished. This does not seem
to have stopped their activity, for, in
1 6 2 1
,
they regained their licences and proceeded to
maintain themselves as institutions o f consid
erable influence. In the follow ing period the
sword-cutlers seem in some cases to have
submitted separate petitions, although they
were still members o f the guild o f smiths.
Thus, in
16 37
and
1 6 4 1
, they complained
that foreign dealers were encroaching on
their rights to sell swords.
CHAPTER 2
THE SWORD-CUTLERS FORM
A SEPARATE GUILD
The different working conditions for sword-
cutlers and other members o f the guild o f
smiths may have been one o f the reasons that
moved the sword-cutlers to apply for a guild
o f their own. Other smiths required for their
work only a supply o f crude iron, whereas
the sword-cutler could not w ork without
blades, which had to be imported or made in
special factories. Actually, some simple sword
blades may have been produced by a factory
for scythe blades which had been established
under Christian IV , and it is known that
swords were delivered to the Crown from
the factory at Brobyværk in Funen, founded