Correspondence between Ackermann and the guild

Ackermanni ning puunikerdajate ja tislerite tsunfti kirjavahetus

In his letters to Tallinn’s town council, Ackermann complained about harassment by the guild masters and justified his work as an independent master by referring to the limited professional skills of the guild masters. The guild denied all of these accusations and accused Ackermann of arrogance and breaking the law.

10 September 1675, Ackermann’s letter to Tallinn’s town council: […] I do not want to and cannot under any circumstances in the interests of my honourable name and my honest art allow myself to be suppressed; rather, I demand a complete explanation and answer from the joiners’ guild. I humbly turn to the venerable and exceedingly wise town council with the request that my rights be recognised, and that it be declared that the joiners’ guild has done a great deal of injustice […] 23 November 1675, Christian Ackermann’s response to the letter from the guild: […] Thereat I would very much like to know which master from among the joiners here has had to produce a masterpiece of wood carving or would want to study it. Not one of them has the faintest idea about the art of woodcarving.[…] the joiners’ guild should worry not at all that I could join their ranks. Nothing of the sort has ever even occurred to me. 22 February 1676, letter from the guild to Tallinn’s town council: […] fourth, he finds that his sculpting, which he engages in with the greatest of pleasure, together with his master’s widow, and about which he immoderately boasts, has nothing at all to do with us. As an honest man, he allegedly keeps his word and needs the work of journeymen, such as other independent sculptors, but he claims to not use our journeymen. What Christian Ackermann has further additionally revealed that slanders our honourable guild – that local masters have no understanding whatsoever of carving statues or have very little such understanding, for which reason they supposedly do not know how to do anything in this field – is pure defamation […] […] seventh, this sculptor in his haughtiness fancies that our whole guild is so very interested in him, in his hewing of sculptures, and in his fantasies, as if we have nothing better to do and as if there was anything at all to discuss here. Nobody wants to take this kind of shame upon themselves to appear before the eyes of this honourable guild solely because of his person, as if he should be treated here like Phidias from Athens or Archilas from Tarento or someone else who made the Colossus of Rhodes […]

6 years ago