A. Identified marks on Flemish copper supports
Jan Michielsens (d. 1691)
Click here for records in Marks on Art
Marks:
• Punch: monogram ‘IM’; surmounted by the cipher ‘4’; below two connected St Andrew’s crosses; encircled by pearls (diameter of 10 mm)
Notes:
The mark IM has been attributed to Jan Michielsens. Based on a note in the archive of Peter Baudouin (DIVA, Antwerp), his place and period of activity have tentatively been assigned to Antwerp from 1660 to his death in 1691.1 The mark is recorded on eleven copper plates, including five scenes depicting the Life of Christ, painted by an artist in the circle of Peeter van Avont (II) on small copper plates measuring 10.2 x 8.9 cm.2
Punch
Peeter Stas (d. after 1616)
Click here for records in Marks on Art
Marks:
• Punch 1: heart in which the monogram ‘PS’ is placed; surmounted by the cipher ‘4’ (together 6 x 4 mm); placed within an escutcheon (7 x 6 mm) (punch 1; in use between 1602/3-1606)
In combination with:
• Antwerp hand with the thumb to the right, placed within an escutcheon (5 x 3.5 mm) (punch A1; in use between 1602/03-1604)
• Antwerp hand with the thumb to the right, placed within an escutcheon (5 x 4 mm) (punch A2; in use between 1604-1607) (stamped below)
• Punch 2: heart in which the monogram ‘PS’ is placed; surmounted by the cipher ‘4’; encircled by his full name ‘Peeter Stas’, including a small Antwerp hand before the letter ‘S’; placed within a circular mark (diameter of 9 mm) with two indentations at the lower right (punch 2; in use between 1606-1609)
In combination with:
• Antwerp hand with the thumb to the right, placed within an escutcheon (5 x 4 mm) (punch A2; in use between 1604-1607) (stamped below in 1606; stamped above from 1607 to 1609)
• Antwerp coat of arms; a castle with three towers beneath two hands with thumbs facing each other (6 x 8 mm) (punch A3; in use from 1609 onwards)
• Punch 3: heart in which the monogram ‘PS’ is placed; surmounted by the cipher ‘4’; encircled by his full name in capital letters ‘Peeter Stas’, including a small Antwerp hand before the letter ‘S’; placed within a circular mark (diameter of 10 mm) with two indentations at the lower center (punch 3; in use from 1609 onwards)
In combination with:
• Antwerp coat of arms; a castle with three towers beneath two hands with thumbs facing each other (6 x 8 mm) (punch A3; in use from 1609 onwards)
Notes:
The mark of Peeter Stas is by far the most recorded mark on copper plates. In total, three different punches appear to have been used for his personal mark, which evolved stylistically over the course of his career. Stas used these punches in combination with those employed to apply the Antwerp hand and date ciphers. About half of the recorded Stas marks include a date,3 making it possible to establish a chronology for his punches (see above), providing a valuable tool for dating paintings executed on Stas’s copper plates.
The earliest recorded instance of Stas’s mark was long thought to be the copper plate Adoration of the Magi after Hieronymus Bosch, bearing the date ‘1587’ punched into the reverse. Recent examination, however, has shown that this date was deliberately altered from 1607 into 1587 [1].4 Based on the current corpus, Stas produced copper plates from 1602 to 1610. However, archival records of financial transactions from 1616 confirm that he was still active in Antwerp at that time.5
Beginning in 1606, Stas incorporated the motif of the Antwerp hand into his personal mark, before the S of Stas. This is frequently accompanied by a second hand applied with a separate punch (A2), positioned below the personal mark in 1606 and above it from 1607 onwards. Because this supplementary hand occurs exclusively in conjunction with Stas's personal mark and follows the same chronological development in its placement, I attribute its application to Stas himself rather than to the guild.
Five of his plates carry the mark ‘W/GB’ (see further below), which I attribute to an assay-master of the guild.
Punch 1, with punch A1
Punch 1, with punch A2
Punch 2, with punch A2
Punch 2, with punch A3
Punch 3, with punch A3
1
Stas’s second punch, with date altered from 1607 to 1587
Notes
1 Archive P. Baudouin; annotations in the 1957-catalogue Koper en brons (Antwerp, DIVA Library no. 739.52.033 UBE).
2 Interior with the Holy Family and two angels, Two angels rocking the Christ Child in his cradle beside the Virgin sewing, Holy Family and two angels in an interior, the Christ Child sweeping, the Virgin cooking, Holy Family with two angels working in front of a house, a landscape beyond and Christ Child working with his father and two angels on a floor, the Virgin seated in front of the house. The plates are slightly broader copies of a selection of twelve prints (plate size c. 10 x 6.5 cm) by Hieronymus Wierix (1553–1619) depicting the Youth of Christ, published under the title Iesu Christi Dei Domini Salvatoris N[ost]ri Infantia in Antwerp cum gratia et privilegio Buschere.
3 For the dates up to 1610, Stas used separate numeral punches measuring approximately 4 mm in height, except for the zero, which measures 2.5 mm. In 1610, he appears to have introduced a new set of numeral punches of uniform height. There are no recorded dates on copper plates after 1610.
4 Thanks to Drs. Jan Op de Beeck, Centrum voor Oude Kunst 't Vliegend Peert, Mechelen, for reaching out regarding the whereabouts of the painting in May 2013 and providing images of the mark.
5 The results of a preliminary archival search by Jan Van Damme in 1997, see: Wadum 1998A, pp. 140-144.