HEEMSKERK, Willem Jacobsz. van

(b. 1613 Leiden, d. 1693 Leiden)

Dutch glass engraver. Like his father before him he became a merchant. After his textile business went bankrupt he was offered prestigious positions in various guilds. Besides his work, he also wrote poems and taught himself calligraphy and applied his talent in this direction to glass as well as paper. As a master calligrapher and glass engraver he was exceptionally productive and decorated drinking glasses, bottles and glass bowls.

Bottle

This kind of bottles were object for diamond-point engravings. For the bottle shown in the picture the silver stopper made of a coin bearing the head of Queen Christina of Sweden has been preserved.

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Dish

This dish was made for Joost van Heemskerk and Anna Coninck for their marriage in 1685. The engraving is the work of Willem van Heemskerk, an amateur glass engraver, cloth merchant by trade. He and other engravers carried on the tradition of glass calligraphy introduced at the beginning of the century by Anna Roemers Visscher and Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher, the daughters of the poet Roemer Visscher.

The dish on which Van Heemskerk engraved his wishes for the bridal couple was made in the Netherlands in the Venetian manner (à la fa�on de Venise).

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