MAKER'S MARK OF THOMAS BOGAERT, AMSTERDAM, 1648, ALSO STRUCK WITH LATER DUTCH DUTY-MARK

The present gilt silver chalice bears the maker's mark of the Amsterdam silversmith Thomas Bogaert (Utrecht c.1597-Amsterdam 1653). Bogaert was born around 1597 in Utrecht as the son of silversmith Jan Jansz and Elizabeth Thomasdr Knijff. Her family too, brought forth many silversmiths. Bogaert took an apprenticeship in Utrecht in 1611 and made his masterpiece in 1622. Three years later he married Anneke Claesdr. van Ewijck, a girl from Amsterdam. Soon the young couple moved to Amsterdam, where Thomas Bogaert became one of the leading craftsmen for Roman-Catholic and Old-Catholic silver. Bogaert re-married in Amsterdam in 1648, this time he married Geertruyt Willemsdr. In the silversmith's guild Bogaert held important positions, between 1635 and 1640 he was appointed two times dean, and between 1636 and 1648 he was four times assay-master.
The earliest extant work which Bogaert, made in Amsterdam, is a chalice from 1626, in the collection of Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam owns a small box and a pair of candlesticks.
The present chalice is of an extraordinary height and weight. Along the bottom of the chalice is a fragmentary inscription, which reads: G...TE MOV...VROU VAN WILLEM CORNELIS SEN S.G. HEEFT DESEN KELCK AEN M... VEREERT ANNO 1648. Willem Cornelissen, mentioned in the text, married in 1601 Gertien Mourisdr, whose name is barely readable [1]. Giertien was buried on 6 January 1648 in the Old Church in Amsterdam [2].

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
[1] Gemeentearchief Amsterdam, Trouwboek, 665, p.151
[2] Begravenis register van de Oude Kerk, no. 1046, fol.76v

A similar silver-gilt chalice inscribed 1634 is in the collection of the Old Catholic Church of St. Nicolas, Krommenie.
See J.W. Frederiks, Dutch Silver, The Hague, 1961, p. 35, no. 68

See illustration