Une Caffetiere (female coffeehouse keeper)

DateCa. 1730

Engraver Martin Engelbrecht

MediumHand-colored etching and 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 1/4 × 7 1/2in. (26 × 19.1cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-150,1B

DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "8"
Lower margin reads: "Une Caffetiere. Eine Cave schenckin./ 1. Tasses à Caffé. 1. Caffe und The Schalsn. 2. une Théere. 2. eine The kanne. 3. un pot au lait./ 3. eine Milchkanne. 4. le sucre. 4. Sucker. 5. vase à rincer. 5. Spükgimpe. 6. une tablette à servir le caffe./ 6. ein Caffe Breff. 7. pipes. 7. pipes. 7. Dubachkhspfeissen./ Cum Priv. Maj./ Martin Engelbrecht excud. A.V."

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 elite audiences rather than inform about the labor involved in these trades or professions. This print depicting a female coffee-house keeper. She carries the objects associated with coffee on her person, trade on a tray, hung round her neck, as follows (titles in old German also): 1. Tasses a caffe (cups of coffee); 2. une theere (tea pot); 3. un pot au lait (milk pitcher); 4. le sucre (sugar); 5. vase a rincer (wash basin); 6 . une tablette a servir le caffe (tray to serve coffee); 7. 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).