KøbenhavnskeSværdfegereTreAarhundreder_1957

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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

the sword-cutlers were in vain. It was easier for them to maintain their rights against en­ croachment in the case o f small swords sold to private persons. In 1700 an unauthorized dealer had his stock confiscated in favour o f the swords-cutlers.

us a rather vivid and coherent picture o f the sword-cutler’s work. It is astonishing how much repair work was done, old blades being repeatedly re-polished and furnished with new scabbards and hilts before being issued to the regiments again. A list o f swrord-cutler’s tools delivered to a military sword-cutler on his departure to his regiment, is found in the accounts o f the year 16 78 , when Denmark was at war with Sweden. The very idea o f free guilds independent o f public control was quite incompatible with an absolute monarchy. More than twenty years, however, went b y before the King made up his mind to deal with the problem. In 1681 .and 1682 two Royal ordinances were issued concerning; the guilds and the appren­ tices ; the principles were repeated in the Code- book o f Christian V in 16 8 3 , according to which the magistrate should control the guilds; but despite all these orders, the guilds continued their internal life and kept their traditions. Theoretically, .anybody who had learned a craft should be allowed to swear his citizen’s oath and establish himself as a master, hut it proved impossible to deprive the guilds o f their inherited right to control new mem­ bers, and die guilds consequently kept their power and influence as long as efficiency o f production mainly depended upon the crafts­ man’s skill. In the 1680 ’s most o f the guilds were given new statutes; those o f the sword-cuclers are dated M ay 14 th, 1685 , and improved their previous, conditions in two respects: they were given a monopoly o f producing and sel­ ling swords, and they were allowed to pro­ duce and sell other articles in gold, silver and other metal. The monopoly, however, proved to be invalid in certain cases when military units contracted w ith braziers or dealers for new side-arms; when the dealers could meet the demands o f the Crown, the complaints o f

c h a p te r 4 THE SWORD-CUTLER’s HEYDAY

In the late 1 7 th and most o f the 18 th cen­ turies, the small sword formed a regular part o f a gentleman’s dress; furthermore, the ha­ bit o f duelling had spread from military circles to other classes o f society and did not fall into disuse till after the middle o f the century. In that period almost any citizen o f a town would, on certain occasions, wear a sword, and at court not only the young cava­ liers, but even lower servants o f the stable and the hunt and young craftsmen who had terminated their apprenticeship with the purveyors to His Majesty were paid a sum “for dress and sword” , the latter being the token o f freedom. The sword-cutlers there­ fore had a wide field o f activity and our knowledge about them is more copious than in the previous epochs. Only a limited number o f sword-cutlers’ names occur in the Royal accounts and still fewer were granted the official title o f sword- cutler to the King. This took place for the first time in 17 2 9 , but even before that time there was an obvious tendency for most o f the sword-cutler’s work for the court to be done by one sword-cutler. During the reign o f Christian V ( 1670 - 1699 ) only Bendix Nielsen is mentioned by name among the sword- cutlers working for the court, and, after the year 170 0 , Hein Kopper, son o f the Marcus Kopper who had been in the service o f Prince Christian in the 1640 ’s and, later on, officially appointed sword-cutler to King Frederik III,