The Rat Poison Pedlar

Entry

Rat poison pedlars or itinerant rat catchers figure regularly in Dutch paintings and engravings by artists such as Rembrandt, Joris van Vliet, Adriaen van de Venne and Cornelis Visscher.² In the rat-plagued cities of the seventeenth century, such figures were commonly encountered on the street and therefore ideally suited for inclusion in painted genre scenes. The present boxwood woodcarving is the only known three-dimensional rendering of this theme surviving from the seventeenth century. A nearly exact copy of the main figure, in boxwood with silver details, dates from the nineteenth century.³ Other later works of a similar nature include a mouse trap seller in ivory from the early eighteenth-century in the Staatliches Museum Schwerin,⁴ and a bronze statuette of a rat catcher from the nineteenth century, made after Jacques Callot and today preserved at the Amsterdam Museum.⁵

The present group appears to be inspired by Rembrandt’s etching from 1632, which shows a rat poison pedlar accompanied by his young assistant, posed and arranged in a similar manner (RP-P-1962-59).⁶ Both in the print and on the carving, the pedlar’s exotic attire, dagger and satchel suggests he is a man of Eastern European origin. In his right hand, he holds the packet of rat poison, which he has clearly removed from the open chest in the hands of his assistant. The chest’s front panel bears the coats of arms of Utrecht and Zwolle,⁷ visually conveying that the permits required for selling rat poison in the two Dutch cities were in the pedlar’s possession.⁸

Cabinet sculpture flourished in the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century, as manifest in the high quality of many of the examples surviving today, including the present group, with its exceptionally refined detailing. One of the best-known specialists working in this niche is the Amsterdam sculptor Albert Vinckenbrinck (1605-1664), to whom Leeuwenberg attributed the Rat Poison Pedlar, in part based on the letters 'AVS' incised on the plinth (fig. a), what he believed to be an abbreviation of Albert Vinckenbrinck Sculpsit.⁹ In actuality, however, Vinckenbrinck monogrammed his works exclusively with either ALVB or AVB, whereas the high quality of the group in fact contradicts rather than confirms this attribution, as Vinckenbrinck’s ability as a sculptor was most lacking precisely in the area of figural depiction. Halsema-Kubes later proffered the suggestion that the signature perhaps belonged to Vinckenbrinck’s son, Abraham (1639-1686). ¹⁰ In the absence of documented works attributed to this sculptor, however, this remains pure speculation.¹¹

With the twentieth-century ‘rediscovery’ of the woodcarver Ambrosius van Swol, whose documented activity spans the years 1643 to 1679, a convincing identification was made for the monogrammist AVS.¹² Although active in Utrecht, the artist’s surname suggests he likely originated from Zwolle – perhaps no coincidence that the municipal coats of arms of these two cities appear on the front of the rat poison chest.¹³ In his day, Van Swol is certain to have enjoyed renown as a sculptor, as an inventory from 1669 refers to een vermaert beelthouwer Ambrosius genaemt (an esteemed sculptor called Ambrosius) in connection with a gilded, carved painting frame. Today preserved at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the superb quality of this work attests to the woodcarver’s skill (fig. b). Van Swol was also highly proficient in the carving of figures, as is noted in a description of various works as ‘The 5 senses, and 8 pieces ditto such fine Men and Women, by Mr. Ambrosius. Modelled’,¹⁴ held in the collection of Petronella Oortmans-de la Court, the widow of a wealthy Amsterdam merchant. The fact that Van Swol’s work was amply represented in this prestigious art cabinet – which also included Francis van Bossuit’s ivory Mars (BK-1998-74) – additionally confirms the artist’s esteemed reputation in the seventeenth century. The proper identification of the AVS monogram also has consequences for the attribution of four terracotta sculptures – two of which are held in the collection of the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Kassel, with two similar groups in the collection of the Kasteel-Museum Sypesteyn (Loosdrecht) – all bearing the same signature and centring on the theme of beggars.¹⁵ While previously linked to Albert Vinckenbrinck, these works can now be added to Ambrosius van Swol’s oeuvre, likewise on the basis of their close stylistic similarity to the Rat Poison Pedlar.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025