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K Ø B E N H A V N S K E S VÆR D F E G E R E
værk denied army contracts to the indepen
dent sword-cutlers so their craft was senten
ced to death. In the follow ing period, the not
very extensive demands for private side-arms
from officers and courtiers was met by the
braziers and goldsmiths until a revival o f the
sword-cutler’s craft came about as part o f the
arts and crafts movement o f the
19
th century.
The social level o f the sword-cutlers seems
to have varied between that o f wealthy gold
smiths, tailors and hatters on one side and that
o f finer locksmiths on the other. A large
number o f poor masters, such as are met with
among cobblers and tailors, did not easily
develop within a profession working mainly
for well-to-do customers. The great families
o f sword-cutlers even obtained social ad
vancement for their descendants: the Plock-
ross fam ily in the
19
th century mainly be
longed to the official class, and a son o f the
elder Weidenhaupt, Andreas Weidenhaupt,
was a sculptor o f contemporary fame, profes
sor in the Royal Academy, and, for a shorter
period, director o f the same.
The percentage o f sword-cutlers who were
immigrants throughout the period is prob
ably typical o f the artisans as a whole in Den
mark. The Kopper and Schritzmeycr families
came to Denmark under Christian IV in the
first h alf o f the
1 7
th century and the names
o f Baumann and Neuhaus are known in con
nexion with other professions in the same
century. The name o f Plockross is not Danish
and seems to have come to Denmark under
Christian V. In the
18
th century, masters like
Rønnow, Wagner, Weidenhaupt and DorfF-
ler were Germans by birth. In
17 18
Nicolai
W u lf came to Copenhagen from the town o f
Malmo in the former Danish province o f
Scania. Among the new masters in the late
1 8
th century a considerable number were
Swedes. The majority, however, were Danes,
and the sword-cutlers’ guild affords good ex
amples o f the innate propensity o f craftsmen
to induce sons take over the profession o f
their fathers.
Instances o f encroachment upon the sword-
cutlers’ profession from hatters and ironmon
gers are referred to in
170 2
,
1708
and
1 7 1 5
.
In
1 7 7 1
, the alderman forwarded a petition
from all the guilds to the K ing; a special
complaint from the sword-cutlers and some
other guilds shows that the problem had re
mained the same.
The exclusive spirit o f the old guilds are
reflected in some incidents which took place
in the
18
th century: In
1 7 1 4
Christian W ag
ner, born at Jena, took out his licence as a
sword-cutler in Copenhagen but failed to
produce a certificate o f legitimacy so the
other masters would not acknowledge him,
the alderman denied him the right o f taking
O
O
apprentices and the journeymen treated him
with contempt. In
1 7 1 7
the alderman made
fruitless efforts to procure a working journey
man for a w id ow o f the guild who wanted to
continue her late husband’s workshop, and
one o f the journeymen who had been obsti
nate was put into jail. N ext year another
w idow tried to run her workshop with the
help o f a brazier, claiming that the alderman
had been unable to give her a working sword-
cutler as promised. Finally, a series o f quarrels
arose between the masters. Jacob Kopper and
Anders Lihme were fined for having made a
separate contract to supply
700
broadswords
for colonel Eberhertz’ regiment. This Jacob
Kopper was in several respects and outstanding
figure by character and wealth. In
17 1 9
he
was paid
679
Rixdollars for a golden broad
sword made for the King and he seems to have
attempted to shake oft the yoke laid upon all
artisans by the inherited prejudice o f guild
spirit.
The question o f the quality o f the master
piece aroused fierce discussions in
1720
when