description

Marcelis de Haan

Marcelis de Haan, Den Haag, 1775
771 gram, 29,5 x 29,5 cm

Detail Description

On 8 October 1731 Marcelis de Haan (1707-1790) together with his brother Reynier de Haan ( 1712-1783) enrolled in the Hague silversmiths’ guild.  During his long active life Marcelis produced a varied oeuvre of candlesticks, braziers, flatware, bread baskets, salvers and the standing Cup for the St. Adrian’s Guild or Skippers’ Guild.



In 1735 Cornelis de Haan, son of Marcelis and his wife Alida Ganswijck, was born, who also enrolled in the guild in 1755.  Both father and son are mentioned on a 1768 list of goldsmiths and silversmiths. Marcelis as a silversmith, maker’s mark a cockerel. His son Cornelis as a goldsmith, maker’s mark ‘a man’s head’. They were both also retailers, whereas Reynier de Haan, maker’s mark RH, was a service worker, not a retailer. Marcelis outlived his son Cornelis, who died in 1788, by two years. Due to his long career as a silversmith, it is likely Marcelis maker’s mark had to be replaced after 1760 because of wear and tear. It seems that the cockerel of this replacement has a fuller tail.



Marcelis de Haan has made similar salvers with floral borders. Four of them from the collection of W.G.Th.H. Sorgen, Utrecht, were put up for auction at Frederik Muller’s Auction House in Amsterdam. The description suggests that possibly Marcelis de Haan was the silversmith. This salver, struck with date letter D (1775) was not in this Utrecht collection, for the date letters were identified as G (1778) and H (1779) respectively. Both pairs, dated 1778 and 1779, have been illustrated. An extra c-ornament can clearly be seen, whereas this specific feature is not present at the 1775 salver. Possibly, one of these (four) salvers is in our collection.