"WINTER VIEW, on the Y-side, near the HARING PACKERS TOWER, in Amsterdam". Etching with engraving, made after a drawing by Herman Schouten. Published by Pierre Fouquet jr. around 1783 in his atlas containing around 100 illustrations of the "well-famous merchant city Amsterdam. All drawn to life." Coloured by hand at the time. Size (print) ca. 27 x 35 cm. Ice fun on the IJ, the later Open Harbour front, at the entrance to the Singel and the Haringpakkerstoren, seen from the Droogbak. On the left the Nieuwe Stadsherberg. The Haringpakkerstoren was built in the Middle Ages as a fortification on the northwest corner of the city walls. During the Spanish domination of the Netherlands, townspeople who rejected the Catholic faith were imprisoned in this tower. Shortly afterwards, the 'condemned' were secretly thrown backwards from the tower into the IJ during the night without any interrogation or trial. At the site of the tower, the Singel still flowed directly into the IJ. The part of today's Prins Hendrikkade at this corner was called Haringpakkerij (the buildings to the left of the tower) because the herring was salted and cured here by the herring packers. The spire on the tower was added in the 17th century by city architect Hendrick de Keyser. The herring packers held their meetings in the tower. A city ordinance dating from 1601 stipulated that when a small bell rang in the tower the herring packers who were in the vicinity had to appear at work. In this print there is no sign of that. The IJ has frozen over, shipping is impossible and everything has ground to a halt. Skaters are gliding over the ice. Koek-en-zopie tents are erected and horses pull sleighs. Simple folk are pushed by hand in their sleds. The Haringpakkerstoren was demolished in 1829 because the impoverished city found the maintenance of the then neglected structure too expensive. Price: Euro 950,-
