Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the close of their Gothic period. By 1600 the style was referred to as 'Dutch
Renaissance' and, by 1615, 'Amsterdam Renaissance'. 'Dutch classicism'
began to appear in 1625, inspired by such architects as Jacob van Campen
(1595-1657), Constantine Huygens (1595-1687), Pieter Post (1608-69), Arent
Van's-Gravensande (1599-1662), Philip Vingboons (1607-78), and his brother
Justus (1620-98). It enjoyed its heyday between 1640 and 1665, and it was this
style, strictly following the rules of Italian treatises, that was to become popu-
lar in post-Restoration London, and to bring with it the prolific use of gauged
brickwork.
Dutch meester metselaar (master bricklayer) and highly-respected craft
teacher, Joop Hofmeijer reveals that Dutch gauged work is concentrated mainly
in the west and south of the Netherlands running on into Flanders; no examples
of note being extant in the east or north of the country (Hofmeijer, 1997).
The skill of gauged brickwork is referred to in the Netherlands by the term
'geslepen metselwerk', which literally translated means 'sharpened brickwork';
a term that is beautifully descriptive of the practice of grinding, cutting and
shaping the selected bricks to precise arrisses for accurate setting. It was used
mainly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but to nothing approach-
ing the extent of its proliferation in Flanders.
Leiden
The late Johanna Hollstelle states that, by the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, the brickmaking region of Leiden (Leyden) along the old Rhine
(Rijn) had become important, where there were at least 30 kilns, some hold-
ing 600,000 bricks fired three to five times a year (Hollstelle, 1976, 276). This
stated capacity for such huge volumes of bricks, however, is indicative of clamps
rather than kilns. A particularly popular source of bricks was the Leiden
(Leyden) region, where the downwash alluvial clay was very clean and refined,
and therefore perfect for a rubbing brick or 'Leide Steen' or 'Leiden brick'.
Traditionally the best of top-grade bricks selected for facework, those that were
perfectly baked, rather than burned, were reserved for gauged work; though
(Hofmeijer, 1997) there was no brick called a rubbing brick or an equivalent
Dutch term.
The gauged work in Leiden dates from the early seventeenth century
through to the nineteenth century, although a different type of clay was used
for the latter period. A large-span semi-circular arch leading into the court-
yard of the Burgerweeshys (1607) is accurately cut and gauged, with the bed-
ding faces only rubbed and edged and laid with fine joints. The voussoir faces
are not dressed nor finished
in situ
, the clay folds being clearly visible on the
brick faces. Study of some early sixteenth-century Dutch gauged work is highly
suggestive of the immigrant Flemish craftsmanship using both 'freynen' to
