MARK OF JAN AARNOUT BOS, AMSTERDAM, 1752, ALSO STRUCK WITH A LATER DUTCH DUTY MARK, A 'V'

Between 1648 and 1758, every year around Easter and fall, the 'Latijnse School' of Amsterdam would hold a calligraphy contest among its students. The winner was presented with a silver feather, the 'calamus argenteus'. This custom began in the early seventeenth Century and was adopted by the 'Latijnse Scholen' of The Hague, Hoorn and Leiden. Each feather was applied with a gilded city emblem and the date it was awarded, the shaft engraved with a roman or Arabic number indicating the grade of the student. The silver feather offered in this lot was presented to one of the thirty students who received the 'calamus argentues' in 1753, of which four were in the 4th grade. Mid-18th Century 'prijsboeken' or 'pricebooks' came into fashion and in 1758 the last silver feather was awarded. The students David Gillot and Jeremias de Wolft received the silver feather at Easter, and Ernestus Ebeling and Joannes Agst Sultz received the feather at the autumn contest. The present lot was presented to one of these students.