Coenraad Rÿkel...Fluÿtemaker (Coenraad Rÿkel...Flute maker) by Ignatius Lux, ca. 1705. Dayton C. Miller Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
This is a trade card, or advertisement, for a flute maker named Coenraad Rÿkel in Amsterdam. The image consists of a display of various wind instruments made by this flute maker, some with the maker's name "RYKEL" inscribed on them. Crossed in the central panel are a bass recorder and a bassoon, and on either side are two recorders and two oboes. Two small recorders are crossed at the bottom center. The fact that only four holes are visible may represent artistic license on the part of the engraver; or, they might possibly be identified as flageolets. In the swags on the left and right are additional Baroque-style recorders, oboes, cornetts and other wind instruments. In the left swag, the instrument with a fontanelle (a pierced ball above the bell) resembles a shawm. A similar instrument is in the right swag. The shawm in the left swag is placed over an oboe, and the simple cylindrical instrument beneath the oboe appears to be a Renaissance flute.
Beneath the image of wind instruments, there is a brief biography of Rÿkel along with the location of his house and studio. The text is given in Dutch and in French. Translated, it states: "M. Coenraad Rÿkel, flute maker, nephew of R. Haka with whom he has worked for 25 years and has been with the company for 8 years, making and selling all kinds of wind instruments, and living in the same house where he has always lived with his uncle, R. Haka, which is on the Spuÿ between the old Lutheran church and Calverstraat, at the sign of the golden bass recorders, in Amsterdam." Coenraad Rÿkel's life dates are 1664-1726, and it is known that he began his apprenticeship with his uncle, Richard Haka, in 1679. Given that the advertisement mentions that Coenraad Rÿkel had been associated with his uncle's business for 25 years, this would mean the advertisement must date to about 1705.[1]
See 756/Z and 757/Z, which are additional impressions of this engraving. See also C575/281 (no Miller number) which is an advertisement for this engraving, possibly from a rare book or print catalogue.
About the Artist and Flute maker
Ignatius Lux, engraver, 1649/1650-after 1694
Ignatius Lux was a Dutch engraver who was born in Amsterdam in either 1649 or 1650, according to Bénézit. No death date is given, nor is any further information about him provided in Bénézit. In the Nicholas S. Lander Web site, Recorder Iconography, the life dates of Ignatius Lux are given as 1649/1650-p[ost] 1694.[2]
Coenraad Rÿkel, flute maker, 1664-1726
Coenraad Rÿkel, the flute maker in this advertisement was born in Amsterdam in 1664 and died in the same city in 1726. His father, Hendrik, had married the sister of Richard Haka, the flute maker mentioned in the advertisement with whom Coenraad served an apprenticeship from 1679 to 1686. Coenraad Rÿkel was active as a flute maker in Amsterdam from 1696 until his death in 1726.[3]
Notes
- A good description of this trade card, with some alternate identifications for the instruments shown in it, a translation of the text , as well as biographies of Coenraad Rÿkel and Richard Haka, can be found online in a Web site by Nicholas S. Lander, Recorder Iconography,
under Ignatius Lux. In the entry under Lux in this Web site, a ca. 1699 date is given to the same trade card in the Gementesmuseum in the Hague, but in the discussion which follows, a ca. 1705 date is suggested instead. [back to article] - Nicholas S. Lander, Recorder Iconography, under Ignatius Lux. [back to article]
- This biographical information on Coenraad Rÿkel and more details about his life and work can be found in The New Langwill Index: A Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors by William Waterhouse. London: Tony Bingham, 1993, p. 341. [back to article]