RKD STUDIES

Panelmaker 4MM (active: Rotterdam, 1632-1648)

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Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘4MM’ – two stacked ‘M’s crowned by the cipher ‘4’ (28 mm high)

Notes: 
Recorded on thirty-one panels, all demonstrating fine, evenly spaced saw marks indicative of mechanical sawing. Combining dendrochronology, art historical analysis and archival research, the panel maker’s workshop has been located in Rotterdam and as active between 1632 and 1648, and possibly longer from 1618 to 1652.¹ On some panels, the punch mark appears multiple times [1], while on others it is rudimentary and difficult to read.

Punch

4/V/HV or 4/V/I-V or 4/v/IHV (Flemish, 1620s?)

Marks:
• Punch: monogram with cipher ‘4’ on top, V below, and skewed ‘HV’, ‘I–V’ or ‘IHV’ beneath (c. 20 mm high)

Notes:
Recorded once, on Elegant Couple attributed in the most recent sale to Louis de Caullery. This panel was branded with iron no. 1 (1617–1626), but only one hand is visible, together with the letter ‘A’ (1621–1622). The mark is complex and stylistically reminiscent of the monogram of Peeter de Noble.

Punch

B/MD (Flemish, 1630s-1640s)

Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘B/MD’ in serifs, ‘B’ above ‘MD’ (c. 12 mm wide)

Notes:
Recorded on seven panel paintings and on one of the two doors of a painted Antwerp ebony cabinet known as The Buckingham Cabinet.

Punch

Panelmaker BR (Flemish, c. 1610-1615)

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Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘BR’: a smaller letter ‘B’ between the legs of the larger ‘R’ (c. 12 mm high), both in serifs 
• Written monogram: large letter ‘R’ (6-10 cm high) with a crayon, recorded on six panels, next to the punch

Notes:
Recorded on sixteen panels used by Flemish artists, none of which bear an Antwerp brand. Three panels were dated by the painters (1611, 1612, 1613); the remaining thirteen are stylistically assigned to c. 1610–1615. Dendrochronological analysis indicates that BR’s panels were made from boards derived from only a small number of individual trees, with some boards of exceptional width (up to 67.5 cm).² None of the boards are from a Baltic forest, the dominant source for timber at the time, but rather from northeastern France or southeast Belgium.

Punch

CVE (Dutch, 1630s?)

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Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘CVE’ in serifs (c. 31 mm wide)

Notes:
The monogram ‘CVE’ is recorded on three panels: A Scholar in his Study (1636) by Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, ‘Beware’ (1630-1635) by Adriaen van de Venne and a painting attributed to Hendrick van Anthonissen.³

Punch

CS (Flemish)

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Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘CS’, indications of serifs (c. 5 mm high)

Notes:
Possible identifications for ‘CS’ include the frame maker Cornelis Seebout (active 1637), panel maker Gaspar Steens (I) (active 1650-1664) or a collector’s mark. The mark is recorded on two panels: Saint Norbert of Prémontré (c. 1675-1700) and The flagellation of Christ, after Rubens. On the latter painting, it appears together with Antwerp brand no. 6 (1619–1638).

Punch

DVH (Dutch, 1627?)

Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘DVH’ (style unknown, no photo available)

Notes:
Recorded once, on Simon de Vlieger’s Shipping off the coast during the latest sale in 2001.⁴ This painting by Simon de Vlieger carries the date 1627, and if authentic, would be the earliest dated and marked Northern Netherlandish panel. However, the catalogue notes that the signature and date have been reinforced and should be treated with caution.

Panelmaker FH (Flemish/Dutch, c. 1615-1650s)

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Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘FH’ in minor serifs (27 mm wide)

Notes:
Recorded on five panels. Three of these have a Flemish origin: Landscape with the Flight into Egypt by an unidentified artist, where ‘FH’ appears together with Antwerp brand no. 3 (1615–1626), and two small pendant tronies Laughing Farmer and Roaring Farmer, where the mark appears branded or reinforced with black paint. The other two display mechanical saw marks indicating production in the Dutch Republic: A Group of Two Boys (1651), signed by Jan de Braij, and A Young Man Wearing a Cap with Feathers by an unidentified Dutch artist from the second or third quarter of the seventeenth century. In case ‘FH’ was punched by a panel maker, the five works indicate that he was active in both Antwerp and Haarlem/Amsterdam.

Punch

H/JK

Marks:
• Chiselled: monogram ‘H/JK’

Notes:
Recorded once, on the reverse of Italianate landscape with hunters by Jan Hackaert. The chiselled monogram is difficult to interpret.

Chiselled mark

ΦSF

Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘ΦSF’

Notes:
Recorded once, on the reverse of Shipping on the River IJ, off Amsterdam attributed to Hendrick van Anthonissen.

Punch

P on an orb

Marks:
• Punch: the letter ‘P’ on top of an orb (28 mm high)

Notes:
Recorded once, on the reverse of River landscape with goats and a shepherd at the bank by an artist in the circle of Pieter van Asch or possibly Johan Pietersz. Schoeff.

Punch

PG above two Andreas crosses

Marks
• Punch: monogram of the letters ‘PG’ (45 mm high) above two Andreas crosses

Notes:
Recorded once, on the reverse of Interior with elegant people at a table by Hendrick Pot.

Punch

S.P (Brussels, 1614?)

Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘S.P’ encircled by a jar with handle; a stick emerges from the top with a star of three intersecting lines

Notes:
Recorded once, on the reverse of Winter landscape with Castle Tervuren signed and 1614 dated by Denis van Alsloot (II). Alsloot was active in Brussels, and therefore this may represent a unique Brussels panel maker’s mark.

Punch

Panelmaker SvM (Delft/Leiden?)

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Marks:
• Brand: monogram ‘SvM’, in ligature (54mm high)
• Punch: monogram ‘SvM’

Notes:
To date, the ‘SvM’ mark is recorded on sixteen panels. The ‘SvM’ mark was generally applied with a branding iron, with one exception: a more delicately crafted punch mark is found on the reverse of Smoking artist in his workshop (ca. 1640-1660). Most panels bearing this mark are painted by seventeenth-century artists active in Delft or Leiden, including River landscape by Pieter van Asch and View of a town with a market by Johannes Dircksz. Van Oudenrogge. One late example, Seven Works of Mercy (1751) by the Flemish artist Nicolas van den Bergh (1725-1774), may represent a reused support.

Brand

WB (Dutch?)

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Marks:
• Brand: monogram ‘WB’, in ligature (33 mm wide) in ligature

Notes:
Recorded on two mechanically sawn panels: River landscape with ships, the town of Leiden beyond (1653), painted by Jan van Goyen, and the female portrait, possibly depicting the Portrait of Anna Isabella van Beyeren Schagen (1636-1716).

Brand

WG

Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘WG’ (style unknown, no photo available)

Notes:
Recorded once, on the reverse of The adoration of the shepherds (1634) by Abraham Bloemaert.

XIZ

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Marks:
• Brand: a complex monogram that may include the letter ‘XIZ’ in ligature

Notes:
To date, recorded on six panels including the reverse of Gerard Houckgeest’s Interior of the New Church in Delft (1650) and on two arcadian landscapes by Jan Gabrielsz. Sonjé, active in Delft and Rotterdam.

Brand

Swastika (Antwerp, c. 1600-1630)

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Marks:
• Punch: left-facing (counter-clockwise) swastika, composed of two stamped ‘ƧƧ’ across each other (18 mm in diameter)

Notes:
Recorded five times, once in combination with Antwerp brand no. 1 (1617–1626) on The Forge monogrammed J.R. by an unidentified artist. The mark is typically placed near the edge of panels instead of in the center as is often the case with maker’s marks. None of the other panels are signed or dated, but stylistically we may situate the panel maker in the first three decades of the seventeenth century in Antwerp.

Punch

Panel maker with the six-pointed star (Flemish and Dutch, c. 1615-1650)

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Marks:
• Punch 1: finely crafted six-pointed star (c. 12 mm from opposing points), in use from c. 1615-c. 1640, often in combination with the Antwerp brand.
• Punch 2: six-pointed star (c. 9 mm from opposing points), in use from c. 1640-1650, once in combination with Antwerp brand no. 11A.

Notes:
To date, the six-pointed star is recorded on 47 panels painted by both Flemish and Dutch artists, including Frans Francken II, David Teniers II, Pieter de Hooch and Pieter de Bloot. The mark appears 18 times in combination with an Antwerp brand: eleven times with brand no. 8 (1615–1650), four with brand no. 10 (1616–1637), and three with brand no. 11A (1634–1649), suggesting activity in Antwerp until around 1640.
The first punch with the large star appears mainly on earlier works, from Rubens’s Lion hunt (c. 1615–1617) to Karel van Mander’s III Allegory of Hearing (1639).⁵ The second punch with the small star is found on later panels used by mainly Dutch artists, such as Pieter de Bloot’s Villagers in a landscape receiving alms (1645) and Balthasar Huys’s Still life with flowers and fish (1650). The difference in punches do not conclusively support the location of production, as the first punch also appears on the Dutch machine-sawn panel Musical company.
The author hypothesizes that the panel maker began his career in Antwerp and migrated to the Dutch Republic around 1640, where he continued producing panels—possibly with the second punch—until at least 1650. One panel, Landscape with Rest on the Flight and several saints, after Rubens’s original from 1630-35, shows the second punch struck over by the punch of François de Bout I (active 1637/38–c. 1645) [1], perhaps indicating that De Bout took over this master’s stock upon his departure to the North.

Punch 1

Punch 2

1
François de Bout’s mark struck over six-pointed star, on the reverse of
after Peter Paul Rubens
Landscape with rest on the flight to Egypt and several saints, after 1637
Private collection

Dolphin (Amsterdam, mid-seventeenth century)

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Marks:
• Punch: stylized marine creature with dorsal fin, here interpreted as a dolphin (37 mm wide)

Recorded on nine panels, which are mostly associated with Amsterdam artists. Examples include Still life with a Chinese lidded jar by Juriaan van Streek and Still life of dead finches by Jan Vonck.

Punch