Un Caffetier (coffeehouse-keeper)

Dateca. 1730

Engraver Martin Engelbrecht

After work by I. I. Stelzer

MediumHand-colored etching with line engraving

DimensionsOverall: 14 × 8 1/2in. (35.6 × 21.6cm) Other (plate to marks, including title): 11 3/4 × 7 3/4in. (29.8 × 19.7cm) Other (Plate): 10 × 7 1/2in. (25.4 × 19.1cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-150,1A

DescriptionUppere right corner reads: "7"
Lower margin reads: "Un Caffetier/ Ein Cave Schenck/ 1. Une boëtte à thé. 1. eine The Hüg(?) 2. une caffetiere 2. eine Caffe kanne. 3. des coupes pour le sucre / 3. Sucker schäsen. 4. Téére. 4. Thekänsen. 5. Chocolatiere. 5. Chocolate kane. 6. flacons aus liqueurs et verres. / 6. Kofoli fläfchesen. 7. Rouleaux de tebac. 7 Dubackh./ 8. piples. 8 Dubackhspfeissen./ Cum Prif. Maj./ Martin Engelbrecht excud."
Label TextMartin Engelbrecht’s mid-18th century publication on trades included both a male and female illustration of each trade or profession in creative ways. Though they represent the tools that tradesmen used and the products they produced, they were meant to entertain audiences rather than inform about the labor of these professions. This print depicting a man who sells coffee or a coffee house-keeper. He carries the objects associated with coffee on his person as follows (titles in old German also): 1. (On his head) une boettee a the (a tea caddy); 2. (right arm) une caffetiere (a coffe pot); 3. (at his waist) des coupes pour le sucre (sugar pot); 4. (at his waist) Theere (tea pots); 5. (in his hand) chocolatiere (chocolate pot); 6. (on tray) flacons aux liqueurs et verres (bottles of liquors and glasses)); 7. (around his legs) Rouleaux de tabac (rolls of tobacco); 8. (in his mouth) pipes (pipe).

This print is from a series of 189 engravings consisting prints featuring depictions of tradesmen in the format known as composite figures, which are human figures made up of objects. Sometimes various accoutrements or tools are cleverly incorporated into recognizable garments or even replace body parts. Each plate represents different trades by trades men and women dressed with associated tools and products. They do not represent actual tradespeople nor are they meant to suggest that women participated in these trades, though in some cases they may have.They were designed by Johann Jacob Stelzner (1706-1780), C.F. Horstman and M. Rosler. They were etched by Martin Engelbrecht ( 1684–1756). The series was published in a compilation known as, From Martin Engelbrecht, "L' Assemblage nouveau des manouvries habilles or Neu-eröffnete Sammlung der mit ihren eigenen Arbeiten und Werkzeugen eingekleideten Künstlern, Handwerkern und Professionen," (Augsburg, Germany, ca. 1730).