NUREMBERG

Since the Middle Ages, Nuremberg has been an important centre of pewter production. The city’s pewter tankard makers’ (pewterers’) guild was established in 1285. Pewter arts and crafts reached its artistic pinnacle in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Relief pewter casting came into prominence starting in the mid-sixteenth century. French pewterer and medallist François Briot (1550–1612) had a fundamental impact on the appearance of Nuremberg pewter; his work was copied in Nuremberg, becoming an inspiration for local pewterers and their products. Albrecht Preissensin, Jacob Koch II, and Caspar Enderlein were among the most important pewterers of that period. The production of relief objects continues into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which also marks the end of the most important pewtermaking period in Nuremberg. Copious amounts of tin from the Kaiserwald (Slavkov Forest) region were processed in Nuremberg, and Nuremberg traders were also involved in tin mining. (JMl)