| Title |
|
Pot deckkelessen (Search for the image) |
| Translated title |
Pot Lids |
| Intro |
Text by dr D. Barnes, accompanying Bramer's drawing of a pot lids peddler (`venter van potdeksels') |
| Code of occupational group |
45220 |
| Description |
A male peddler, wearing a soft cap, has a wooden yoke across his shoulder. He has lowered two large wicker baskets onto the ground, and holds the chains from which the baskets originally hung. The baskets are filled with wooden cooking pot covers and ladles. A curly-haired woman, wearing an apron, kneels close to the ground, carefully inspecting the contents of the peddler's basket. So intent on the task, she practically steps out of the mule on her right foot. Their transaction takes place in a village with buildings, which have long, sloping thatched roofs. In the background, a covered wagon on large wooden wheels is lumbering away from this scene in the direction of the distant church steeple.
Wooden kitchen utensils were crafted by artisans and sold door to door, at regular markets, and at fairs. They were relatively sturdy, although sometimes the handles got burned if left too close to the fire. With repeated use, wooden spoons and ladles wore out when scraped against heavy iron pots. Lids were placed on cooking pots to retain heat or to prevent bubbling liquids from overflowing. Lids were also used to cover foodstuffs marinating in small wooden tubs or earthenware bowls.
A peddler of cooking utensils is seen among the crowd in Adriaen van Nienlandt's 1633 account of the annual leper's parade (Amsterdam Historical Museum). The Algardi-Guillain 1646 publication of etchings in Rome, based on Annibale Carracci's street cries, also has a peddler selling wooden spoons and ladles. |
| Source |
Donna R. Barnes, Ed D, Street scenes, Leonard Bramer's drawings of seventeenth-century daily life (Hofstra Museum exhibition 1991). Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
Click here for the introductory essay on Bramer's drawings. |
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