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such case is known relating to a sword-cut- lcr’s masterpiece in the 18 th century. A ll this tended to improve the standard o f the arti­ sans’ work but the sword-cutlers may have been too much on the decline at that time to benefit from academic training. Later on, the teaching o f G. F. Hetsch made the designing class the centre from which a pure neo-classi­ cal taste spread to all branches o f applied art, and under his auspices also the last generation o f Copenhagen sword-cutlers came to matu­ rity. c h a p t e r 7 REVIVAL AND EXTINCTION In one o f the years between 1 8 1 2 and 1820 the last o f the old Copenhagen sword-cutlers may be assumed to have closed their work­ shops, but a revival o f the old craft was at hand. In 1828 and 1829 two young sword- cutlers from Prague, Johan Herazcek and Matthias Jurzick, took out licences as sword- cutlers in Copenhagen and the arts and crafts movement o f the new century was to provide a fertile ground for their activity. In the meantime, the braziers and gold­ smiths had done some sword-cutler’s work e.g. the sword o f honour which was presented in 1828 to prince Charles o f Hesse-Cassel on his 70 th anniversary as a Danish officer (Plate 17 ). Certain professional disputes arose be­ tween the braziers and sword-cutlers after the establishment o f Herazcek and Jurzick, but they seem to have been easily solved by the Royal ordinance o f 1828 according to which the braziers’ and sword-cutlers’ trades were united on certain conditions for those masters who wanted to work in both o f them. The scope o f private sword-cutlers was limited by the circumstance that the factory at Frederiks­ værk furnished the army with side-arms and also attempted to produce finer swords (cf. Plate 20 ). Herazcek and Jurzick soon estab-

Niels Svendsen Birch executed a test sword less “ courieux” than the old masters were w illing to let pass. He received his licence from the magistrate but little more is heard o f him. It is known from the death-registers that the journeyman sword-cutlers had an organi­ zation o f their own. Thus, in 1 7 6 1 , the two “ oldgesellen” o f the sword-cutlers were pre­ sent at the death o f the journeyman sword- cutler, O luf Lungman, who, to judge from the wardrobe and other belongings in his possession, was a rather neat, almost elegant, young man. Similar sources sometimes give glimpses o f the private life o f the masters. The poorer ones would often live with wife and children in one single room, the work­ bench standing at one end, the conjugal bed at the other. The richer had their own houses w ith a separate workshop. The right to execute and sell articles from silver and gold other than sword-hilts was bestowed upon the sword-cutlers by their statutes o f 1685 . This put the sword-cutlers under the same conditions as the silversmiths who were obliged to sign their products w ith a master’s mark and have them stamped by the warden. The master’s mark o f some sword-cutlers may sometimes be found on hilts made from less precious metals. On page 17 2 is reproduced a series o f master’s marks. The requirements for the masterpiece: an iron-hilt inlaid with silver and gold, were not altered by the new ordinance concerning the guilds issued in 17 5 6 . A reform o f the Royal Academy in 1 7 7 1 affected the conditions o f the artisans, a designing class for those arti­ sans who ought to know some drawing being introduced. At the same time it was laid down that designs for the masterpieces should be submitted to the Academy which should also approve the masterpiece itself. Only one