Der Schellenmacher

This sheet shows the work of a cellmaker. Through a window one preserves a view into his workshop. There he sits facing to the right at his workbench and works with hammer and chisel small pieces of metal on the workbench. A lady sits opposite him, she seems to raise the finished clamps on ribbons. On the windowsill in the middle of the foreground you can see the finished bundle of shells, on a windowsill in front there are other finished pieces in various forms. A young boy seems to steal a few shells from the windowsill. In 1698, Christoph Weigel (1654-1725) describes in his book that the earlier bands were made of gold before brass was used. That would be a reason for the boy to steal the clamps. On the other hand, he rides on a hobby horse and seems to only want to play with the clamps. On a round box in the background on the left of the woman’s workbench you can see the initials “IA.” They stand for the native of Zurich graphic artist Jost Amman (1539-1591). In volume 4 of the “Catalogue on the Collections of the Handel House in Halle” of 1966, Konrad Sasse mentions Amman as a template only. He also mentions the source in which the paper was published: “Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens (...),” a 1568 book by the Neulateinian poet Hartmann Schopper (1542-1595), published in Frankfurt am Main. From 1563 he had this printed at the Frankfurt printer Feyerab; the publisher Sigmund FeyerDies (1528-1590) is known. In addition, Schopper’s collaboration with Amman is mentioned in various sources, which is why the artist’s woodcut may also be present here. It is surprising, however, that the figure number 63 is not listed on the present sheet and instead of “Schellenmacher,” as can be read in the book, only “Schellemacher,” so it will probably be a reprint after Amman. In the book “Eygentliche In Aller Stdem auff Erden (...)” from 1568 by Hans Sachs (1494-1576) the motif also appears. Caption: Campanularius. The Schellemacher. [Text] A Spera cum paßim Bacchi certamina feruent, Perluit & sapido pectora quisg (us) mero. Spernite vbi Curios, et Bacchanalia vinit Vulgus, et insanae enomit ante fores. [Under Picture] Ars mea tunc fatuis est [tißima, nolas Comparat et certo quilibet aere meas: Quippe viris plerung (us) placet campanula stultis, In stolida dulces que mouet aure sonos. Vendicat inuentum quod opus sibi iure vetustas, Legifer in primo cum fuit orbe Senex. Source: Part: Hartmann Schopper: Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens, quotquot vnquam vel a veteribus, aut nostri etiam seculi, celebritate excogitari potuerunt, breuiter & dilucide confecta, carminum liber primus... accesserunt etiam venustissimae imagines omnes omnium artificium negoci Schopperum (...), Frankfurt a.M. 1568, Fig. 63. (Stiftung Händel-Haus Halle Foundation)