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Copyright of Quarterly of the History of Material Culture / Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej is the property of Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When turning to the techniques of etching on metal to make intaglio prints on paper, goldsmiths addressed potential clients and other fellows in their trade. In doing so, they put forth statements about what constituted property for members of each of these social stations. Multiple claims competed to classify to whom the raw materials belonged, the skills to transmute them or the forms that such handiwork took and whether the ownership of such entities could be transferred, redirected or even undone. The Nuremberg goldsmith Christoph Jamnitzer stages these questions in an etching that shows a tailor who is holding a flag stitched together from remaindered pieces of cloth. Connecting for the first time this image to its literary source, Hans Sachs's 'The Tailor and the Flag', published in 1563, this essay demonstrates how the episode attests against the hoarding of materials, and for the ethos of giving clients and apprentices their due. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apprenticeship in London was the concern of both livery company and city institutions. In this article, we connect evidence about the petitions submitted by apprentices to the Lord Mayor's Court for early discharge from their indentures with the entries recording their apprenticeship and freedom surviving in the records of Goldsmiths' Company. Each contains a distinct set of complementary information about apprenticeship in London. By positioning appeals to the Lord Mayor's Court against the company's records of youths' trajectories through apprenticeship, we can expand our understanding of the contractual framework of training and associated enforcement mechanisms in early modern London. As we show, the Court was used to negotiate with masters, as well as to terminate contracts. Quitting an apprenticeship through the court did mildly 'scar' the chances of youths (not masters), but the Court process appears to have largely protected reputations. Finally, we provide the first estimate of gaps in livery company registration of apprentices, particularly female apprentices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis: Folia Archaeologica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Historians of natural history have shown that the study of plants, animals, and minerals was a form of connoisseurship in the eighteenth century. Historians of early modern experiments have linked scientific knowledge to the manual skills of artisans. I combine these two insights, arguing that connoisseurship in the sciences meant learning to touch, not just learning to look. The focus is on gems and mineralogy in eighteenth-century France. I show, firstly, that the study of gems was linked to the connoisseurship ("connoissance") of paintings. Next, books on gems were closely related to the new mineralogical treatises that emerged in the middle of the eighteenth century. These treatises formalized a distinction between "Oriental" and "Occidental" gems that was also a distinction between hard and soft gems. The best judges of hardness were gem cutters, a group that participated in mineralogy through the culture of collecting. Finally, the knowledge of cutters contributed to the quantification of hardness in the form of the hardness scale and the scratch sclerometer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The text presents the crafts related to precious metals in terms of the importance of gold in China's economic culture; the development of jewelry manufacturing techniques and their makers, the jewelry market divided into the geographical location (within the PRC); the needs and preferences of the demand side, as well as the gender and age group of the final consumers. The aim of the article is to answer the question whether Chinese goldsmithing is associated with luxury or associated mainly with the production of luxury products. Design/methodology/approach: The research method used was desk research – an analysis of the literature and articles written by Chinese journalists based on interviews with goldsmiths. Findings: The article points out that the contemporary group of Chinese goldsmiths is very diverse. Although gold is associated with luxury and a good financial situation, the profession of a craftsman is not as closely associated with this social consciousness. Originality/value: The article presents the topic of goldsmithing, which is relatively rarely represented in the literature of economic sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 14th-century audit accounts of the chapter of Lincoln Cathedral record expenditure for the year 1305–06, and contain valuable information about the manufacture of a silver matrix for a 'great seal'. This short note considers why the chapter might have spent a large sum of money on a seal matrix when they already possessed a common seal, and reveals the rediscovery in 2018 of the original 12th-century silver matrix of the seal of the chapter of Lincoln Cathedral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1998 a massive gold signet ring was found by metal detecting in the parish of Raglan, Monmouthshire (Gwent), close to Raglan Castle. Now generally known as the Raglan ring, it is a remarkable example of late medieval goldsmiths' work. This paper considers its motifs, legend, date and stylistic affinities. Its findspot is close to the castle-building programme at Raglan continued by William Herbert (executed 1469), who projected his position as premier supporter of the House of York in a variety of ways. Possible ownership is discussed, as is its wider context (including newly discovered signet rings from Wales). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A biography of Thomas Gray from Westminster, England, who was the most prominent specialist royal retail jeweler, goldsmith and sword-cutler of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, is presented. The most notable and costliest items provided by Gray were made for George, Prince of Wales (later George IV). His notable business and high-valued premises in the West End of London at Sackville Street provided him with a successful career during the period of late Georgian history.

In fifteenth-century Florence, many artists, whatever their eventual specialty, trained in goldsmiths' shops. Throughout Europe, moreover, the goldsmith's art, which was practiced publicly, engendered widespread awareness of processes such as casting and plating metal. Among Florentine sculptors, goldsmithing nurtured an experimental approach, an attention to surface, and the adoption of novel media deriving from work with precious metals. After 1400, regulations circumscribing the art were reinterpreted and applied to large-scale sculptures made of copper alloys. In Donatello's works, expansive creativity collided with strict regulation, revealing the complexities associated with the re-emergence of bronze and brass sculpture in quattrocento Florence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the development of the theme of the Life-giving Spring in Byzantine iconography. The path towards its establishment was initiated at the moment when a representation rule, an original convention was set. Thereafter, because of its diffusion in time and space, the theme became enriched by particular mentalities and sensibilities of the epochs and the communities that adopted it as a form of devotion for the Virgin Theotokos. As a result, the representations we have known so far are extremely varied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Musei Brukenthal is the property of Brukenthal National Museum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The reliquary crown, hosted in the diocesan museum of Namur, was produced during the beginning of the 13th century to shelter a fragment of the holy crown of thorns. This beautiful piece of goldsmithery is made of eight gold plates, topped by round lobes, and connected to each other by hinges blocked with a pin decorated by a pearl. The crown is decorated by filigrees, flowers, and approximately 400 pearls and coloured (green, reddish pink, turquoise, red, blue) stones showing simple cutting with various sizes and shapes. Raman and portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF) techniques have been used to determine the nature and sources of all samples, as well as the composition of filigrees. Analyses have identified emeralds from Pakistan, reddish pink spinels from Tajikistan, red almandine garnets from India, turquoise from Iran, blue sapphires from Sri Lanka or Myanmar, and European pearls. The filigrees contain approximately 86 wt% Au, 7 wt% Ag, and 7 wt% Cu, thus confirming a gold-rich composition. The gemstones, contemporary with the crown, probably arrived in Europe by the silk trade road. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Quintana: Revista do Departamento de Historia da Arte USC is the property of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on the topic of Jewish goldsmiths in early modern Prague who constituted a small but highly specialized professional group of artisans in the local Jewish society. The obvious prerequisite for practising such a trade was not only knowledge of metal processing, fine craftsmanship, and refined aesthetics, but also connections and close contacts with suppliers of precious metals and gems, and with wealthy clients who could acquire such jewellery and other luxury goldsmith products. The study seeks to provide a comprehensive view of the goldsmith's trade in Prague during the 16th century. It describes the legal conditions under which guild-organized Christians could practise goldsmithing, and compares them with the legislative pre-requisites under which Jews were allowed to engage in this profession. Attention is also paid to the widespread participation of Jewish and Christian goldsmiths in financial transactions and other credit transactions in that period. At the same time, however, the study seeks to capture the broader cultural and social framework of the lives of Jewish goldsmiths in the Prague metropolis, which was shaped not only by solely professional, financial and business relationships, but also by other personal contacts both within their own community and in various Christian social strata. Based on the observations of the lives of several prominent Jewish goldsmiths who worked in Prague during the 16th century and especially during the Rudolphine period, it tries to determine whether they were long-term residents or newcomers from other countries. It also examines their involvement in the Prague Jewish community, their property status, and their possible further involvement in the administration of the local community. All this in the context of immigration, which affected Prague after the middle of the 16th century and to a large extent impacted the composition of its population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goldsmith-engravers active in Nuremberg in the sixteenth century confronted scarcity as a material reality, a philosophical concept, and a justification for legislation on their behalf. Focusing on two booklets of printed design proposals, one attributed to Matthias Zündt from 1551, the other published by Christoph Jamnitzer in 1610, this article treats the ways in which conservation was practiced in the goldsmith's studio alongside classical and early modern discourses on the limitedness or limitlessness of natural resources—fire, water, air, and land. When fashioning metalwork objects for patrons, goldsmiths used precious materials to indulge through formal innovations the fantasy that the earth's supply is inexhaustible. Yet the prints in places undercut this fiction. Moreover, while they gesture openly to other craftsmen to partake of their contents, the booklets relied on the privilege, a form of contrived scarcity, to restrict first rewards to the inventor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northern dynasties (386–581 CE) of China witnessed extensive cultural contacts with the outside world. Several gold objects of this period indicate multiple culture influences. However, very few of them were testified by metallurgic analysis. The gold jewellery including a finger ring and an earring with exotic features were uncovered from the joint elite Sogdian tomb of Shi Jun and his wife of the Northern Zhou dynasty (557–581 CE) in Xi'an. The current study applied multiple non-destructive analyses to investigate the decorative techniques and materials of the two objects. The results showed that both ornaments were made of refined gold. Autogenous welding and brazing were employed for joining the granules of the earring, indicating different technical choices. More interestingly, niello made of silver sulfide was identified as an innovative technology to decorate the finger ring, presenting the earliest evidence of niello inlay in ancient China. It is noteworthy that powders of silver and sulfur were applied separately, deferring from the traditional method of silver sulfide being synthesised prior to being used. These findings help us gain insights into understanding the technical features of early Medieval gold jewellery, as well as the goldsmith's methods and intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is twofold. First, it offers an analysis of heredity and exclusivity in Bruges' late medieval goldsmith guild on the basis of prosopographical research. It examines family ties and the entrance of newcomers to this guild, thereby also exposing the flexibility of guild regulations. In second place, it focuses on the relationship between the perceived exclusivity of goldsmith guilds and the functioning of this guild in practice. In doing so, this article becomes a case study demonstrating the place of goldsmith guilds in debates concerning the nature of guilds.

The paper is devoted to the cross-guard of the fragmentary dagger found in 1984 in the princely nomad burial near the village of Kosika in the Lower Volga area, belonging to the type of ceremonial daggers which were widespread in Eurasia in the 1st century BC-1st century AD and which became one of the insignia of power as testified by the finds in the princely nomadic burials and depictions on the royal figures on the stelae from Commagene. The dated (year 238) dotted inscription preserved on the gold overlay of the cross-guard found by one of the authors in 2015 and completely cleaned from the iron oxides in 2017 contains an indication of the craftsmen and the weight of gold, confirmed by the eklogistes , which means estimated on the highest state level. The inscription allows us to suggest, with high degree of probability, that the dagger may have been manufactured either as a tax payment of the corporation to the state or rather was ordered by a king to serve as a gift to an equal person. Moreover, the analysis of the inscription suggests that the object could have been made in Asia Minor, perhaps in Commagene, in 74 BC (that means the date falls in the Seleucid era), rather than in 59 BC, because the existence of the eklogistes in the Pontic Kingdom has not been confirmed by any documents. This date corresponds well to the archaeological date of the burial in Kosika to the early third quarter of the 1st century BC and the already published hypothesis, that the deceased could have been a participant of the Asia Minor campaign of the Bosporan King Pharnakes in 49-47 BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Institute of Art History is the property of Radovi Instituta za Povijest Umjetnosti and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When talking about Vesalius's final days, most authors refer to a merchant from Nuremberg, or a goldsmith who assisted him during his final hours. A more systematic comparison of the sources and research in Nuremberg allowed us to identify Georg Buchner as Vesalius's last companion in life. His tomb was found and is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernisation brings the decline of traditional crafts and practices and thereby of their old, linked communities. Memories of these communities might survive though only for a time. A public policy dilemma presents – whether to conserve communities and their crafts as 'living museums' (akin to a milieu de mémoire in Pierre Nora's terms) for tourist titillation; alternatively to merely retain the traces of that culture, as a museum more conventionally understood (lieux de mémoire); or, alternatively again, to accept the ephemerality of culture and its metamorphosis? And, if the last, then how is that to be presented to the discerning tourist? The paper mostly uses the case of the ancient goldsmith community of Wat Koh in Phetchaburi city, Thailand, to reflect on this dilemma. At stake academically are two sets of dialectic opposites: history against memory, and memory against nostalgia – also the contingent dichotomy of tourism and memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests that institutional workshops of assay were significant experimental sites in early modern London. Master assayers at Goldsmiths' Hall on Foster Lane, in the heart of the city, and at the Royal Mint, in the Tower, made trials to determine the precious-metal content of bullion, plate and coinage. The results of their metallurgical experiments directly impacted upon the reputations and livelihoods of London's goldsmiths and merchants, and the fineness of coin and bullion. Engaged in the separation and transformation of matter, assayers and the affairs of their workshops were also a curiosity for those interested in the secrets of nature. Making use of a wide-ranging body of sources, including institutional court minutes, artisanal petitions, mercantile guidebooks, recipe books and natural-philosophical treatises, this article uncovers a complex culture of metropolitan expertise. We first examine the workshop spaces in which assayers undertook their professional activities, and their secretive corporate cultures. We turn next to the manuscript culture through which assayers codified and communicated knowledge, 'secrets' and techniques to broader urban audiences. Finally, we assess exchanges and tensions between assayers and the wider community of Londoners engaged in scientific knowledge production and dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers some of the present-day issues, challenges and possibilities facing television broadcasting via a critical examination of the recently published Goldsmiths report on the future of public service television in the twenty-first century. Focusing mainly on UK terrestrial broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5), the article summarises and expands on the report's key findings and recommendations, particularly in relation to questions concerning digitalisation, content, diversity, quality, marketisation, funding and national and regional heritage. The article argues that, despite the rise of the Internet and the proliferation of digital platforms, television viewing remains a common source of information and entertainment and is characterised by meaningful continuities. Additionally, the article outlines the vitally important role played by David Puttnam, chair of the Goldsmiths inquiry, in defending public service television through his active engagement with relevant parliamentary committees and as a widely respected media professional. Finally, the article reflects on the continuing relevance of the 1962 Pilkington Report on Broadcasting, which was similarly commissioned in order to evaluate the purposes of television. In so doing, the article suggests that Pilkington's criticisms of creeping commercialism and the ensuing regulatory proposals still represent a cogent engagement with the idea of public service broadcasting as a primary facilitator of deliberative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long presented guilds as monopolistic and rigid, and goldsmith guilds counted as the ultimate examples of family-oriented organizations virtually closed to newcomers. While historiography has largely moved away from such descriptions, the accessibility of guilds remains a subject of study. This article examines the attitudes of the late medieval goldsmith guild of Bruges towards newcomers. This capital-intensive craft, in this case study initially set in an environment in which the luxury trades thrived, perfectly demonstrates the ways in which market conditions impacted the accessibility of a guild, thus showing that the goldsmiths were not averse to newcomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Musei Brukenthal is the property of Brukenthal National Museum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zbornik Odsjeka za Povijesne Znanosti. Zavoda za Povijesne i Društvene Znanosti is the property of Hrvatska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, Zavod za Povijesne i Drustvene Znanosti and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Economic historians have shown that the regulations of craft guilds were a source of innovation rather than inertia in the economy of early modern Europe. Historians of science have shown that craftsmen contributed to the scientific revolution in the same time and place. But very little is known about the role of guild regulation in intellectual (as opposed to social, political and economic) change. This paper shows that regulation went hand-in-hand with intellectual change at the Paris guild of goldsmiths in the decades around 1700. In this period the wardens of the guild developed sophisticated techniques for organizing and disseminating their large archive of legal documents. They also published two books on the natural history of precious stones that broke with the learned tradition of writing on this topic. The reform of the archive and the reform of natural history were undertaken by the same goldsmiths, for similar reasons, using analogous literary techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calls to reinvent architectural practice have been a steady part of the profession from its inception. Widely published cultural writer Douglas Murphy, who teaches in the architecture departments of the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins in London, tracks the variety of forms they have taken: from reactions to specific historical and technical developments, to perennial concerns regarding the architect's standing in society and on the building site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Archaeologica Brunensia is the property of Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of South African Journal of Cultural History is the property of South African Society for Cultural History and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studia Archaeologica Brunensia is the property of Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)