Wire-drawing bench, Nuremberg, before 1565
Commentary
Image. Leonhard Danner (1497/1507?–1586). Wire-Drawing Bench, before 1565. German, Nuremberg. Various woods, wood marquetry, iron, steel (gilded, etched). Musée National de la Renaissance, Château d'Écouen.
Videos
The technology for drawing wire existed since the Middle Ages and was crucial, for instance, to making chain mail. The first video below demonstrates how this technique worked and some of the solutions developed in the era for making it less laborious.
The wire-drawing bench commissioned by Duke August I of Saxony represents a celebration of this technology, not for its novelty, but for its utility, above all for a region of Germany renowned for its mineral resources, metallurgy, and manufacturing. Its parts and function are demonstrated in the second video.
The bench is designed for the production of thin wire from gold, silver, and other metals. The end product was used in the decoration of weapons, furniture, and vessels, and for weaving and embroidery. Threaded through a draw plate, the metal was pulled with pincers and wound around a drawing winch to be cranked along the bench. The process was repeated through successively smaller holes in the draw plates to obtain the desired diameter. Goldsmiths had used tools of this type since the late Middle Ages, but this unusually large example would have outperformed the smaller models in most workshops. With it, a skilled artisan could also cut screws, springs, and fine moldings. It is unclear whether Augustus used the bench himself, but he and his guests would have appreciated its state-of-the-art design.
Images and further information: Catherine Cardinal, 'Le banc d’orfèvre du prince électeur Auguste de Saxe (1526-1586) au Musée national de la Renaissance', available here.