Proeve van ets-kundige uitspanningen, of verzameling van plaatjens, door de ets-naald in 't koper gebracht, met bijgevoegde verhandelingen, de teken-en etskunde betreffende. Door P. Kikkert, Leermester in de Tekenkunde. Vermeerderd met gedichtjens op elk der plaatjens, door liefhebberen der Nederduitsche dichtkunde.
No place or printer: printed for the author (, 1798.
Price: $2,800.00
Large octavo: 22.5 x 14 cm. [1]-[9], 10-88 p. Collation: A-E8, F4. With 18 added etched plates.
FIRST EDITION, Leiden issue. Printed in Leiden “for the author”. Another issue of the edition printed at Amsterdam by W. van Vliet, 1798.
Bound in contemporary speckled paper over stiff boards (worn, paper chipped at extremities, esp. the lower margin of the upper board and the head of the spine, but sound.) A tall copy, the contents clean and untrimmed (title very lightly foxed). The 18 plates are in excellent condition.
A wonderful artist’s manual, with 18 etchings of vernacular subjects, among them 7 remarkable images, drawn from life, of some of the well-known working, lower-class, and impoverished citizens of Leiden. Among them we find the beggar Martje van Harten ("known by the farcical name of “Kluit water en brij"), who frequented the Marepoort; the foul-mouthed tailor's servant Jean Baptiste Fertez (d. 1796); the newspaper vendor Klaas Langenakker; Dorus the hunchback, who served as valet of the gentlemen of Leiden University; and Jan Rondekont, a baggage handler at the Leiden-Haarlem ferry.
Kikkert also includes an image of the aged (but still highly-esteemed) local artist Jan Zwanenburg, who was at the time living in a madhouse, selling his drawings for a paltry two stuivers to his admirers. The portrait of Zwanenburg (the subject is shown holding a drawing of a flower) is followed by Kikkert’s reproduction of one of the artist’s -rather naïve- drawings, signed in the plate “Jan Zwanenburg”.
The author, Pieter Kikkert, was working as a draftsman in Leiden when this book was published. He later moved to Schiedam. 12 of the etchings are of Kikkert’s own design; the other 6 are engraved by Kikkert “after drawings by various masters”, among them the successful etcher Christina Chalon (1748-1808), student of Sara Troost.
Each of the etchings are accompanied by poems "door liefhebberen der Nederduitsche dichtkunde"(by enthusiasts of Dutch poetry). The book includes a “Treatise on the true nature of imitating nature, in drawing and painting”, and a “Treatise on choosing a subject, imitating humorous objects, for drawing or painting.”
The eighteen etchings, in 3 parts, are as follows:
Part I:
“After drawings by various masters”:
1. A fisherman from the seaside village of Katwijk, after Johannes Huibert Prins (1757-1806)
2. A woman playing with her children (one of whom is led around by the characteristic Dutch leading strings) after Christina Chalon (1748-1808)
3. A shepherd boy and his dog, after Bernhard Heinrich Thier (1751-1814)
4. A woman nursing her child, attended by a nurse, by J.C. Jansson
5. Portrait of Jan Zwanenberg, “drawn from life” and etched by the author
6. A reproduction of one of Zwanenberg’s drawings, etched by Kikkert.
Part II:
“Drawings of one’s own invention”:
1. Old beggar in the manner of Callot
2. Old woman begging, in the manner of Callot
3. Seated peasant
4. A mother playing with her child
5. A peasant gazing out a window
6. A farmer’s wife (with her child) gazing out a window.
Part III:
“Drawn from life [by the author]”
1. Jean Baptiste Fertez, the tailor’s servant
2. Klaas Langenakker, the newspaper vendor
3. Jan Rondekont, a baggage handler for the Leiden-Haarlem ferry
4. Martje van Harten
5. Gerrit, nicknamed “The Doctor”
6. Dorus the hunchback, valet at the Rijksuniversiteit.