Books › The arts and crafts book of the worshipful Guild of violin-makers of Markneukirchen, from the year 1677 to the year 1772, 1894 › scan 19
Scan 19
The arts and crafts book of the worshipful Guild of violin-makers of Markneukirchen, from the year 1677 to the year 1772, 1894
4 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 11. See the scan on archive.org.
1Within the first 50 years of its existence only 46 men joined the Guild as new masters. As probably few attained the rights of Mastership at 20 years of age, and the founders of houses were mostly of riper years, we may surmise that the latter had died in the meantime, and of the 46 that stepped into their places, at least one third were blessed with a fair share of temporal riches. The number of journeymen was therefore probably between 20 and 30, and as each journeyman had the right to employ an apprentice, and as many also took in students, we may reckon the number of persons engaged in the manufacture of violins at somewhere between 60 and 70.
3Among these there were but 30 families of violin-makers represented, if one identifies the variously-spelt names of Pöpel and Schönfelder. Of the house of Reichel there were ten master-workmen, of that of Schönfelder eight, from the families of Popel, Hopf, and Dörffler respectively, three each, so that the members of these five families alone nearly equalled the remaining 25 in numerical strength. Of the 14 families mentioned in the municipal registers of the year 1627 we only find the names of Brann, Glier, Pollman, and Jäger, in addition to the before-mentioned family names. We must not lose sight of the fact that in the early history of the Guild, the addition of new families of makers to the industries originally founded by immigrants was very slow. But we should not lay too much stress on this, lest it should be thought that the new comers and the older and respected citizens held aloof from
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