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E N G L I S H S U M M A R Y
1 8 1
is the dominating figure. The third gene
ration o f this efficient family, Jacob Kopper,
in his turn worked for King Frederik IV
between
1 7 1 6
and
17 2 6
. The king’s golden
broadsword in Rosenborg may be the very
broadsword for which Jacob Kopper was paid
679
Rixdollars in
1 7 1 9
. He also worked a
good deal for the army but seems to have
emigrated to the West Indies after the great
fire o f Copenhagen in
17 2 8
. His two sons,
Jacob Jacobsen Kopper and Hans Christian
Kopper, o f whom the latter is mentioned as
sword-cutler in the Royal Armoury
1759
-
60
,
are less outstanding figures than the three first
generations o f the family.
The second great family o f sword-cutlers,
the Plockross family, is first mentioned in
1703
when Johannes Plockross, who was also
a brewer, took out his licence as sword-
cutler. He was the first sword-cutler in the
1 8
th century to be given the official title o f
sword-cutler to the King. He had submitted
a petition asking for this title after the fire in
17 2 8
, appealing to the K in g’s pity with the
victims o f the fire, among whom was Plock
ross himself. When he died in
1738
he was a
prosperous man, but he does not appear to
have done so much work for the King as e.g.
Jorgen Neuhaus or Caspar Ronnow. His son,
however, became the finest o f all the Copen
hagen sword-cutlers o f the great century. His
name was Niels Christian Plockross and, in
17 4 2
, he applied for his father’s title as sword-
cutler to the King, urging that he had travel
led abroad. He may have been one o f the
Copenhagen journeymen o f the sword-cut
lers’ guild who are referred to in a Royal
decree o f
1736
dealing with a complaint con
cerning the failure o f the guilds in Hamburg
and Lubeck to acknowledge. As Royal
sword-cutler, N . Chr. Plockross executed
over thirty more or less luxurious pieces o f
silver and gold, some o f which are still kept
in Rosenborg. He did very little work o f m i
litary character but, when he did, obtained
excellent results, e.g. the silver sword for
officers o f the Royal Guard,
1747
(Plate
9
)
and the Horse-Guards officers’ broad-sword
1772
(Plate
8
,
1
), the latter probably being the
result o f a close collaboration with his son,
Frederik Plockross. This son did not succeed
him as Royal sword-cutler, a member o f the
Weidenhaupt fam ily being preferred. Frede
rik Plockross made the pattern for an officer’s
sabre in
1789
and died in
1790
. His w idow
married the sword-cutler Frederik Meyer who
continued the workshop until
1 8 1 2
.
The Weidenhaupt fam ily came to Den
mark with Johan Christian Weidenhaupt who
was born at Breslau about
1694
and took out
his licence as a sword-cutler in Copenhagen
in
1 7 2 1
. He died in
1742
and his w idow mar
ried the sword-cutler Johan Christian Herrig
who, for more than twenty years, managed a
flourishing business as furnisher and contrac
tor for military side-arms. Among the sons o f
Johan ChristianWeidenhaupt, the eldest, who
was his father’s namesake, succeeded N . C.
Plockross as sword-cutler to the King about
1 7 7 3
. The younger, Peter Weidenhaupt, took
over Herrig’s business in
1764
. Peter W ei
denhaupt was the last private sword-cutler
who was an important military supplier, as
the manufacture o f the Hammermollen near
Kronborg gradually increased its production.
The activity o f J. Chr. Weidenhaupt the
Younger as Royal sword-cutler was less im
portant than that o f his predecessor, because
the demand for small swords by the court
steadily decreased towards the end o f the
century.
Besides the deliveries o f the court sword-
cutler, the Royal accounts mention gold
smiths and different dealers who were from
time to time paid considerable sums for pre
cious swords. In some cases, too, a new ma