B. Unidentified marks on Dutch and Flemish copper supports
Copper smith GK (active c. 1610-1640)
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Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘GK’; minuscule circle next to the G, above the K; encircled by pearls (diameter of 10 mm)
Notes:
In the past tentatively identified as Gerard van Kessel (1588–1640), a tin smith originally from Antwerp and active in Rotterdam, but new archival information makes this identification unlikely.1 None of the paintings with the ‘GK’ mark carry a date, but all can stylistically be dated to c. 1610-1640 and are painted by Flemish artists. A group of seven copper plates, painted around 1615 by different Antwerp artists for the Portuguese market, bear this mark on their reverse, suggesting that a dealer or supplier distributed prepared copper plates among multiple workshops, as documented in contemporary archival sources.2
Punch
Copper smith KW (active c. 1610-1640)
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Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘KW’; surmounted by a rosette composed of seven pearls; encircled by pearls (diameter of 10 mm)
Notes:
‘KW’ is currently recorded on twenty paintings by artists active between c. 1590 and 1642, most of them Flemish. One painting that carries the ‘KW’ mark, Still life with tulips and roses in a glass vase, is signed and 1632 dated by Ambrosius Bosschaert III (1609-1645), active in Utrecht at the time.3
Punch
Copper smith HV (active c. 1600-1625)
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Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘HV’ with an ‘I’ or a nail placed between the ‘H’ and ‘V’.
Notes:
To date recorded on four unattributed Flemish copper plates, including the pendants Adoration of the Christ child and Entombment.
Punch
SDM
Marks:
• Punch: a heart divided into three compartments; letters ‘S’ and ‘D’ above; letter ‘M’ below; surmounted by the cipher ‘4’ with a horizontal crossbar on the lower stem; within a circle.
Notes:
Recorded once, on the reverse of Extensive imaginary landscape with Italianate buildings by a river, a lake beyond signed and dated 1586 by Otto van Veen (1556-1629), when he was court painter of vice-roy Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma in Brussels.
Punch
Ψ/W
Marks:
• Punch: letter ‘W’, surmounted by a tri-fork-shaped motif, possibly a stylized trident or emblem
Notes:
Recorded once, on the reverse of Vulcan reveals the adultery of Mars and Venus signed and 1610 dated by Joachim Wtewael (1566-1638), then active in Utrecht.
Punch
W/GB (attributed to an assay master, Guild of Saint Eligius)
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Marks:
• Punch: letter ‘W’, letters ‘G’ and ‘B’ below
Notes:
Recorded on six copper plates, always together with the personal mark of Peeter Stas of which some carry a date (1607 or 1608). On all known examples, the letters ‘W/GB’ are punched along one of the long edges of the copper plate. I attribute this mark to an assay master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Eligius.4
Punch
Notes
1 Dubbe 1978, pp. 266, 370, 373, fig. 517; Putten 2006.
2 Nativity; adoration of the angels and Nativity; adoration of the shepherds, both possibly by Cornelis de Baellieur (I); Calvary and Calvary, both attributed to the studio of Louis de Caullery; Adoration of the Magi and Entombment attributed to Frans Francken, and Adoration of the Magi by an anonymous artist. The paintings belonged to the collection of the Monastery of the Holy Cross (Mosteiro da Santa Cruz) in Coimbra and are now in the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis. I am grateful to Dr Ana Paula Machado and Dr Ana Mantua for allowing my examination of these plates in May 2025.
3 There are two other copper plates with the ‘KW’ mark, both c. 11,3 x 18 cm, that were attributed to the Dutch marine painter Aert Anthonisz when with Galerie Crouzet in Paris in 1990 (no 7a and 7b). ‘KW’ might have supplied copper plates to artists in the Northern Netherlands. Unfortunately, we have not been able to identify these paintings.
4 See also Wadum 1998, p. 142-143.