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Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis. Jaargang 15 (2008)

Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis. Jaargang 15

(2008)– [tijdschrift] Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

Vorige Volgende

Karen L. Bowen
Sounding out a Pubilc's views of Pedlars with texts
A Consideration of Images of Pedlars in the Low Countries (1600-1850)

In the early seventeenth century in the Low Countries, images of pedlars ranged from examples of proverbial cheats (‘bedriegers’) to poor figures deserving financial donations and public encouragement to earn their keep in this fashion. In between there are numerous neutral, often faceless portrayals of (typically) men making their way from one place to another, bearing a large pack with indistinguishable contents, or small images of hawkers included as just one detail in a larger street scene (cf. figs. 1-4). Why, then, does a pedlar's reputation - then and still today - remain so dubious?

 

In order to better understand the roots of such attitudes and evaluate their actual pervasiveness, I am examining the visual and literary portrayal of pedlars with texts, or sheets of prints or songs, in the Low Countries in the period 1600-1850. Part of a larger research project at the University of Utrecht on the pedlar and the dissemination of the printed word, the long-term goal is to compare and confront visual, textual, and archival sources that reflect the evolving views of pedlars with printed wares in the early modern Netherlands.1 Strictly speaking, the focus of this project is on the network of itinerant salesmen working in what is now recognized as the Netherlands. Nevertheless, throughout this study, I will also be considering examples of images and books that were originally made or printed in what used to be called the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium) and will refer simply to ‘the Low Countries’ for both regions together. For, not only did copies of the original books and prints travel freely between these areas, but so did the woodblocks and copper plates used to print them.2

Hence, one cannot simply separate products of these politically distinct countries when examining the image-forming that occurred within them.3

While some results from this project have already been published, in this article, I will present my work on the visual aspect and offer a preliminary answer to the questions posed above.4 Specifically, I will begin with an overview of the various media employed to produce images of pedlars - thereby indicating the diverse public for whom such images were intended. I will then examine a sample of prints (book illustrations as well as independently published prints) in greater detail in order to determine what this sub-group reveals of the public's attitudes towards pedlars. In this way, I will be able to consider what types of images were dispersed and how pervasive specific conceptions of the pedlar, generally, and ones with printed matter specifically, were. I will then conclude by discussing whether these preliminary results can provide a ‘reality check’ for the information gleaned from the other branches of this project.



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Figure 3: Adriaen Colbert after Hans Bol, January, engraving (14.4 × 14.5 cm), state ii, as published by Claes Jansz Visscher (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, rp-p-1890-A-16071)




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Figure 4: Ziet, Kinderen! afgebeeld een reeks van Liên, wien handel .. Elk op zyn wys, den kost, dien men dus eerlyk wint.. [Look children! a series of occupations... whereby each earns his keep honestly, in his own way], broadside no. 65 comprising 25 woodcuts, each ca. 4.2 × 5.0 cm, published in Amsterdam by J.A Aldag (s.a ). See, in particular, the third figure in the second row, showing a pedlar selling (according to the caption) combs, glasses, and almanacs. (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, rp-p- 1923-280)


Essential here is the question: to what degree is any one type of source material truly, factually representative of a society's views and to what degree can the juxtaposition of distinct types of sources help us form a more balanced, ‘realistic’ perspective? I hope to offer an initial response to the question of how certain popular views of the pedlar were formed and prevailed within this context.

Overview of pedlar imagery

The time-old, common-place profession of selling or exchanging one's wares with members of one's local community, as well as strangers, has, not surprisingly, a comparably pervasive presence in the visual arts. Indeed, throughout the period under consideration, 1600-1850, artists working throughout Europe portrayed itinerant salesmen and woman in various media for what must have been a disparate public. In the Low Countries these range from images on tiles, pilgrim's pennants, and wall paper, to hand-drawn sketches and large-scale paintings.5 The goods that a pedlar had to sell are often not clearly depicted, if they are described at all. Indeed, the most common image in this group is that of a figure with a large, heavy pack en route somewhere. While this could be a pedlar making his rounds or traveling to acquire his wares, it could also just be an ordinary traveler or a porter hired to transport someone else's goods. I collected all of these examples, to guarantee as complete a survey of representations of pedlars with printed matter as possible. Only when it is clear that a pedlar bears items that do not include printed texts or images was the work excluded, as with the numerous harvest scenes or renditions of fruit, vegetable, and fish markets that are common to Netherlandish art.

Within this large, general pool of source material, images in prints, drawings, and paintings are the most numerous and diverse. They vary from sundry general landscapes through which a traveler - perhaps a pedlar - makes his way, and market scenes illustrating, among other things, how pedlars and street singers make their living, to close-up studies of single figures. Together, these reflect a full range of perspectives on pedlars, from minor figures that are generic components of a landscape, to key players in an allegorical image, or solitary characters, worthy of an evocative depiction.6

The key questions remain, however, namely: which perspectives prevailed in a given period and to what extent do these reflect the pedlar's actual place in society at that time. In order to address these issues, I examined representations found in prints and book illustrations. This group of imagery has two advantages for this type of research. First, while both paintings and drawings typically constitute single, solitary conceptions of the subject that would ultimately be viewed by a limited audience, prints are,

by their very nature, intended to be reproduced hundreds, if not thousands, of times and distributed among sundry viewers. While it is usually impossible to know exactly how many impressions were made of specific prints, general parameters exist, determined by the period and technique in which the image was made. Of the three primary print techniques used during the period under consideration - etching, engraving and woodcut - woodcuts were the most profitable and are also usually associated with popular images for a broader, poorer buying public.7 For, they were relatively inexpensive to make, but could still produce tens of thousands of prints at no extra cost beyond the working of an ordinary relief printing press. Of the two remaining techniques - often associated with a wealthier class of buyers or collectors - etchings were faster and cheaper to make than engravings. Both, however, yielded far fewer impressions than woodcuts - only a few thousand - before the plates had to be significantly reworked (for a fee) or replaced. Even so, all prints, whether used as book illustrations or sold independently, had a far greater reach than any other art form and must, therefore, constitute a truer sample of what a society saw, bought, and responded to.8 The second advantage that prints offer when considering how the given works were viewed is that they were often accompanied by texts - be it the title to a series, a caption to a specific image, or the broader context of the accompanying text for a book illustration.9 As will become clear below, these texts provide critical insights into how the prints as a whole, as well as the pedlars within them, were regarded by those producing them, and seen, in turn, by the general public.

Print media

I consulted a variety of sources when looking for prints with representations of pedlars selling books or loose sheets. Chief among these were the Hollstein series of Dutch and Flemish prints, various illustrated books, and collertions of popular prints, otherwise referred to as ‘centprenten’ [penny prints] or ‘kinderprenten’ [children's prints].10 Thus far, I have gathered more than 325 separate editions of prints and a selection of illustrated books with images of pedlars (or potential pedlars).11 This group is dominated by etchings (some 227 editions), that were made or reprinted throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While a number of engravings featuring pedlars are also present (some 57 editions), the majority of these were produced or reprinted only within the

first half of the seventeenth century. Woodcut images with pedlars, on the other hand, did not become common in the Low Countries until the production of popular penny prints took hold by the end of the seventeenth centuty and was putsued by several publishers (almost all located in the Netherlands) throughout the eighteenth century. Although there are only 30 different examples in this initial sampling of imagery, this is most certainly a gross underestimate, reflecting, in part, how scarce these popular prints are now. The potential significance of the penny prints is also underscored by the fact that this group includes remarkably few (especially for penny prints) reprints or reissues of the blocks under consideration. By contrast, approximately half of the editions with etchings and engravings consist of re-issues of certain popular images. Indeed, if one eliminated all of the re-issues of prints, one would end up with fewer than 100 distinct etched images of pedlars and approximately 27 each of woodcut and engraved images.

The initial dominance of etching as the medium for images with pedlars and the subsequent prominence of woodcut images is also telling, for, as noted above, these were relatively inexpensive print media. The early prevalence of etchings suggests that the publishers of these subjects, favored a relatively quick and easy print production, where the more limited (in relative terms) potential number of impressions was not critical - for example, they were not expecting sales to exceed a few thousand prints. The subsequent use of simple woodcuts suggests that creating a fine, artistic image was not as important as the ability to print large numbers of impressions cheaply. In neither case, could one argue that there was a prominent public desire for more costly, refined prints comprising representations of pedlars.

If the bulk of prints comprising pedlars do not appear to have been intended for the upper-end of the print market ot print-connoisseuts, what was their purpose? In order to address this question, one needs to consider the possible significance of the pedlar figure. The vast majority of the prints collected (more than 200 editions) show people with large packs as a detail of a larger image. These larger images encompass a full spectrum of subjects, from evocative landscapes, to generic scenes from the local countryside or country fairs, to city views and representations of the seasons.12 In none of these images is it clear what the purpose is of the person with his pack - pedlar, traveler, or porter - nor does it ultimately seem to have mattered. For whenever there is an accompanying title or caption to the image, only the general location of the image is stressed - a view of Spa, Haarlem, or Amstelveen - or else the general qualities of the landscape or the season. Even in allegorical images with an accompanying text where there would be room to comment on all of the pertinent, contributing visual allusions, the small, heavily ladened figures are often not mentioned at all. This suggests, once again, that they have no specific significance beyond serving as a conventional landscape element, like an extra tree or nondescript bird, which may have been included simply to help create a particu-

lar atmosphere or indicate the relative scale.13 Thus, while not necessarily carrying a specific meaning, these readily included figures do tell us that such travelers, regardless of their specific occupation, were commonplace in the countryside, going from town to town, and had, in this context at least, a neutral, matter-of-fact association.14

Close-up views of pedlars were another matter, however, for the more detailed description of the figure, his wares and his contact with others often formed the subject of the image now. In the seventeenth century, strikingly divergent views of pedlars were published. In some instances (cf. fig. 5), the same apparently neutral, non-judgmental observation of figures conveyed in the landscapes discussed above, was still maintained.



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Figure 5. Johannes Visscher after Nicolaes Berchem, Pedlar crossing a wooden bridge, etching (20.4 × 15.5 cm) (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, RP-P-1904-70)




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Figure 6: Claes Jansz Visscher, Allegory of Peace, etching (17.0 × 35.5 cm), 1615 (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, rp-p-ob-79.942)


The primary difference now is that the more informative description of the figure enables one to postulate that the man is a pedlar owing to, in this case, the now visible inclusion of a distinctive short stick with a rounded top that would be suitable to support a pedlar's box when being displayed to potential clients (cf. fig. 1). In other cases, including illustrations to works by popular seventeenth-century Dutch authors, pedlars may simply represent the common man living an ordinary life.15 Or else, as noted above, some artists even suggested that pedlars, like cripples and other beggars, should receive our sympathy and alms (cf. fig. 2).

It is, however, the negative identification of the pedlar as a thief and cheat with worthless wares that is repeated most often in a variety of contexts in this period. In Claes Jansz Visscher's 1615 political broadside, celebrating the newly founded Dutch republic (fig. 6), pedlars represent the detrimental influence of foreign salesmen with false goods. In other images, Netherlandish sayings, such as ‘iemand trompen verkopen’ (to sell someone a Jew's harp), meaning to cheat someone, are visualized by a pedlar trying to sell someone his goods, including, on occasion, a Jew's harp.16 Similarly, Andries Both applied the concept of pedlars selling glasses that can't really help one read, to an image of sight for series of the five senses.17 Finally, some artists, like Herman Saftleven, were more explicit in their assessment of such figures, as he simply identifies a solitary figure with a box full of items, including some glasses, as a ‘Bedrieger’ [cheat] (fig. 1).18 Or, in the caption to a print, Beggars on their way to the Fair, after Jan van de Velde ii, the text warns how the pedlars and beggars who like to gather there may steal one's money and easily get away with it.19 While these images demonstrate the divergent views of pedlars, generally, in the Low Countries in the seventeenth century, the question remains as to how pedlars of printed wares and songs are described.

Interpretation

In the seventeenth century, a few types of pedlars with specific types of texts were periodically depicted, namely: sellers of almanacs, ‘koningsbrieven’ [kings' notes] and ‘koningskronen’ [kings' crowns] - the paper accoutrements needed for a traditional party held on Epiphany, 6 January - and songs. Images of hawkers of ‘koningsbrieven’ were occasionally included in depictions of the activities associated with the month January, in a series of images of the months (fig. 3). However, such seasonal imagery - like the more negative, allegorical images of pedlars discussed above - appears to have been a brief extension of a trend in representation that was especially popular towards the end of the sixteenth century. For while Claes Jansz Visscher republished a few such series of the months in the first half of the seventeenth century, the demand for these images died out soon thereafter, replaced, perhaps, by pure landscapes.20 There is one other prominent image of a seller of ‘koningsbrieven’ that first appeared in Antoine de Bourgogne's 1639,

emblematic work, Mundi lapis lydius, sive: Vanitas per veritatem falsi accusata et conuicta (Antwerp: Jan Cnobbaert, 1639). Here, the Epiphany party, where someone is made king for the evening, is used to underscore the fleeting, idle vanity of titles and high positions, which are (according to the author] just words that will do you no good when death comes to call. This print was republished twice in Antwerp in the course of the seventeenth century, both times with the same basic message, but in each case, the seller of the ‘koningsbrieven’ was not criticized specifically, rather those who idly sought titles.21

Thus, in all of these images, the seller of the Epiphany party sheets and crowns was depicted neutrally and in no way associated with a cheating, deceitful figure, as the images of ‘generic’ pedlars discussed above. Similar arguments could be made for the portrayal of almanac sellers, where images describe what they have to sell, but do not go farther to suggest an annoying aspect.22 Matters are notably different, however, in depictions of singers with sheets of music.

Street singers

Street singers were depicted in a variety of print media - engravings, etchings, mezzotints, woodcuts - and in a variety of contexts throughout the entire period under consideration. In the seventeenth century, the images of these figures typically show poor, often unkempt men and women with ordinary folk as onlookers. If there is an accompanying text, the tone is often sarcastic, belittling the quality of the voice and song.23 Only in Cornelis Bega's roughly drawn etching of a solitary, faceless singer, from the mid-seventeenth century, could one argue that the image is neutral and non-judgmental, although the figures shown still appear poor.24 This persistent feature of poverty agrees with archival evidence indicating that singers were often among the poorest of the street hawkers, and were, indeed, known for performing tasteless, controversial songs.25 In this regard, an infrequently published text by Jacob Cats on the attempts of a young man to win a rich widow's love (‘Liefdes Vosse-Vel. Proef-steen op het trougeval van Faes en Alette,’ first published in 1657-58), offers a useful contemporary perspective.26 For in this story, a false report of pre-marital love-making, is spread via street



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Figure 7: Adriaen Matham after Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, Street singers, engraving [10.6 × 13.8 cm), in: Jacob Cats, Alle de wercken (Amsterdam: Jan Jacobsz Schipper, 1657-1658), vol 11, fol Aa2v (inserted between quires Q and R) (Antwerp, Stadsbibliotheek: C185511 [C2-567 a])


singers (cf. fig. 7). And while the falsely accused woman attempts to stop the dissemination of the song, the local authorities turn a deaf ear to her petition, conceding that such things are impossible to hinder, as they are enjoyed too much. Thus, while one might agree that the songs thus sung and sold were not always appropriate, there was a market for them and the practice was accepted.

 

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such views of street singers as poor, annoying folk with tasteless songs persisted,27 but now they were more often counter-balanced by a remarkable shift in the portrayal of pedlars as a whole. Namely, among the mass-produced popular penny prints from this period, a new perspective is evident, exhibiting a greater understanding of what itinerant trade demands, along with the desire to encourage poor people to work that way and thereby earn an honest living. For example, in J. Noman's print Handel en bedrijf (fig. 8) the wearing demands of the itinerant trade - carrying heavy loads throughout the city, working from dawn to dusk in all kinds of weather - are highlighted by the brief captions that accompany the occupations shown here. In numerous other images (cf. fig. 4), the title to the print makes an explicit appeal to the viewer (often identified as a child) to consider one of these trades, which, while yielding small profits, still provides a way to earn one's living honestly.28 As noted above, this apparent campaign to encourage the poor to work respectfully was not directed exclusively at pedlars selling printed wares. Indeed, as in fig. 8, images of such pedlars or singers are not always included in these sheets. When they are present, usually men are shown selling almanacs or maps and prints.29

Interestingly, images of singers (men and women) were not commonly included in the images of trades discussed above. Rather, representations of (female) ballad singers and couples at fairs selling songs are usually found among penny prints featuring positive views of recreation, as well as fun at fairs and along the street (see fig. 9, which also includes a man selling newspapers and a boy selling penny prints).30 What a remarkable shift in perspective from the seventeenth-century representations of pedlars at markets



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Figute 8 Handel en bedrijf [Trade and business], broadside no. 14 comprising 8 woodcuts, each ca. 10.4 × 8.2 cm, published in Zaltbommel by Johan Noman (s.a.) (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, rp-p-1923-282)


and fairs where, if detailed enough, they were almost always portrayed negatively.31 While the old distrustful view of pedlars still appears on occasion, such images are clearly less common now and, as before, are limited to singers, among those selling paper wares.32 But why? what might have caused such a dramatic shift in the presentation of these same types?

Explanation

One potential explanation derives from evolving economic circumstances and how governing bodies and other social organs wished to deal with them. For example, it appears from eighteenth-century legal records that government officials were not as likely to persecute itinerant booksellers if they claimed poverty as the motivating factor behind their choice of work. The government was more interested in maintaining the social order, which implied stopping begging, theft, and the spread of immoral or politically



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Figure 9 Hier knaapjes, kunt ge uw oog verzaden met een tooneel van aardigheên ... [Here, boys you can feast your eyes on an array of pleasantries..], broadside no. 270, comprising 36 woodcuts, each ca. 4.7 × 4 cm, published in Zaltbommel by Johan Noman (s.a.). See, in particular, the last three figures in the fifth row, showing a boy selling penny prints, a man selling newspapers, and a woman singing (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, rp-p--1923-281)


controversial news.33 This agrees with the headings on the penny prints, which underscore the advantages, however small they may appear, of peddling and earning one's income honestly rather than begging. Laurence Fontaine similarly suggests that when the economic threat of pedlars lessened in the eighteenth century, the images of pedlars became less strident and derogatory.34 By contrast, images such as Visscher's allegory of the new Dutch state, discussed above (fig. 6), make it clear that at that time [1615) he, at least, regarded foreign merchants as a real threat to the new society as a whole.

Another factor that may have contributed to the shift in how pedlars were portrayed and the more positive, educative function of these images, was an attitude toward the possibilities of art generally and wood-engravings (a sophisticated sort of woodcut) in particular, as expressed in the inaugural address of The illustrated London news (14 May 1842):

And there is now no staying the advance of this art [wood-engraving] into all the departments of our social system....it walked abroad among the people, went into the poorer cottages, and visited the humblest homes in cheap guises, and perhaps, in roughish forms; but still with the illustrative and the instructive principle strongly worked upon, and admirably developed for the general improvement of the human race.

The Dutch penny prints were similarly regarded as the most affordable printed item (they were also cheaper than newspapers) that could be purchased by poorer individuals and used for their edification, as well as the general improvement of the working classes.35

The times, thus, were changing on several fronts. The need to encourage the poorer classes to change as well, through which ever means seemed most effective at the moment, including cheap, visual propaganda, resulted in a striking new and widely dispersed portrayal of pedlars at work.

Conclusion

While my research continues, this sample of prints with representations of both generic pedlars and those specializing in the distribution of printed wares supports, nevertheless, several essential observations concerning the portrayal of these ever-present, mobile salesmen.

One concerns the potential public reception of these prints. The media employed to make them suggest that less-expensive and often less-refined print media were preferred for the images containing these figures. While the etchings that initially prevailed would have had a more limited print-run, the fact that more than half of the editions noted were reprints or copies of a selection of these prints suggests some popular success. In the case of the woodcuts that dominated later on, the great variety of editions printed with distinct woodblocks attests, in its own right, to a mass distribution of such images that, given the relative cheapness of the production process and simpleness of the representations, were probably intended for a broad, popular audience.

Another essential observation is how the dose-up view of pedlars, generally, changed from a prevailing negative view in the seventeenth century, to a more accepting and even positive portrayal of those who really wanted to work and earn a living in this fashion in the eighteenth century. Within this shift in representation, pedlars with printed wares fall into two general groups, namely, those with identifiable texts or

prints and maps, who were not systematically associated with the negative view of hawkers, and the ballad singers, who were.

Two questions still have to be addressed: to what degree are these findings ‘print specific’ and to what degree do these images - in addition to works in other media - truly reflect the ‘social reality’ of the period in which they were made and published.

Obviously, works of art are no simple reflection of a society's activities and views. They are affected by the personal views of the artist making them, of the publisher or patron commissioning them, as well as the more general cultural and social trends of society at large, including the prevailing prejudices of what was then fashionable and desirable to portray. Thus, there are discrepancies, for example, between the abundant evidence of the ongoing celebration of Epiphany with a Three Kings party (into the nineteenth century), on the one hand, and, on the other, the striking disappearance of the seasonal images that occasionally comprised representations of pedlars selling the paper accoutrements for these evening festivities in the early seventeenth.36 Similarly, while often ridiculing, amusing textual accounts of pedlars' street cries were in circulation by the late sixteenth century,37 visual representations of trades and street-cries did not become common in the Low Countries (north and south) until the late eighteenth century, when other concerns (e.g., social welfare) supported the propagation of positive, educative representations of various tradesmen (in addition to occasional cautionary images). In addition, while archival sources make it possible to discern the great variety of pedlars who were active and what they sold when - distinctions that were also, thus, evident to the local authorities and townspeople at the time - such specific differentiation is rare in works of art. Consequently, one cannot argue that visualizations of pedlars simply reflect all current examples and practices of itinerant salesmanship.

Nevertheless, these images still offer a useful ‘reality check’ for what can be learned about pedlars generally and those hawking printed matter in particular from other ‘objective’ archival sources, such as legal records, where the very nature of the sources lends a negative tinge to the characterization of pedlars that might be derived from them.38 If one simply studied the wealth of information from archival sources, for example, one might thus miss the great swing in attitudes evident in eighteenth-century prints. While these, themselves, are perhaps not representative of the attitudes of the whole of society, they provide a useful reminder of how others, not always represented in archival documents, did regard these figures. All the more reason, then, to make a comparative, cross-field analysis of this material as supported by this project, where-by archival, literary, and visual sources are juxtaposed in order to achieve the most comprehensive, justifiable assessment of a group of people who were ever-present, often unmissable links in the distribution network of prints and texts, but left few paper trails for historians to follow.


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