The Claes Baardt brush mount

The Claes Baardt brush mount

The maker of this brush mount was one of the most important and famous silversmiths in 17 th -century Frisia. Of the four generations of silversmiths the Baardt family produced, Claes Baardt was the second and the most skilled. He was born in Bolsward in 1628 as the oldest child of the marriage of silversmith Frank Rienks Baardt and Lyuwkien Clases Allinga. On 1 December 1640, aged 12, he was recorded in the Bolsward register of goldsmiths and silversmiths as an apprentice to his father. On 3 May 1654 he enrolled as a master in the
guild, having successfully submitted his masterpiece. In all propability, he took over the running of the silversmithing business from his father.
Claes Fransen Baardt did not confine his activities to silversmithing. He also invested in property. The Bolsward orphanage records show that, like his father, Baardt traded in woollens and textiles, and also looked after his mother-in-law's business interests. In the year
he became a master, he married Siucke Harckes, a daughter of the cloth merchant Harcke Gerrits and Trincke Rinnerts; she was a good match. Through Rinnert, Siucke's brother, Baardt became a connection of the famous Van der Lely family of silversmiths in
Leeuwarden. When Rinnert died, his widow Ijnske Nannes Okma married Frederick Jarichs van der Lely.

Silversmiths often used pattern books and, like painters, drew inspiration from print
examples. In the designs of his chased and embossed silverwork, Baardt used elements of
etchings by Rembrandt, Antonio Tempesta and Hubertus Quellinus. Beautifully rendered
hunting scenes and battles, along with delicate images of flowers, butterflies and insects, are
striking and recurrent motifs in Claes Baardt's output. His chased work was renowned and he
was sought-after as a silversmith. His fame is evidenced by the commissions he received
from Henricus Popta in 1682 and 1683 for two chased candlesticks, a mustard pot and a salt.
Popta, advocate to the court of Friesland, was among the elite in the region. He owned a
considerable collection of silver, part of which, known as the Popta Treasure, is in the
collection of the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden.