A Dutch Silver 'Amsterdam Riot' Tobacco Box, Pieter Vergreer, Schoonhoven, 1777
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
A Dutch Silver 'Amsterdam Riot' Tobacco Box, Pieter Vergreer, Schoonhoven, 1777
shaped rectangular, the cover and base each engraved with a scene from the Amsterdam tax riots, the cover with a scene of the riots at the Dam square during the public execution of the two people believed to be instigators of the rebellion, the base engraved with the plundering of houses along a canal, the back engraved Oproer Tot Amsterdam Van den 24 tot den 28 Junij 1748, gilt interior, marked on the rim and stamped IVR
length 5 3/8 in.
13.5 cm
6.7 oz
208 g
Christie's, Amsterdam, 20 June 2012, lot 107;
Where acquired by the present collector.
The pachtersoproer (Tax Farmers' Riots) were a series of violent uprisings against the city's corrupt tax-farming system. Discontent reached a boiling point in June 1748 after news arrived of similar, successful tax rebellions in the rural provinces of Friesland and Groningen. The Amsterdam riots fully broke out on June 24 at the Botermarkt, with people breaking into and looting the homes of the taxmen. Rioters threw crates of illicit tax money and expensive porcelain into the canals. The rebellion lasted for four days with thirty-six houses looted and three people killed. On June 28, its leaders Pieter van Dordt and the famous Dutch fishwife Marretje Arents were hung from the Weighing House on the Dam Square.
A tobacco box engraved with scenes of the fights on Dam Square and the looting of houses was presented to those who were responsible for suppressing the rebellion.
For a similar box see H. Vreeken, Goud en Zilver met Amsterdamse keuren, Zwolle, 2002, no. 221, p. 298, illustrated.
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