Eine verzierte Takelure aus dem Jahr 1851

Abstract

"In 1998, with the support of the Bremen foundation Waldemar-Koch-Stiftung, the German Maritime Museum was able to purchase a highly unusual 'Takelure' or manually operated foghorn of the kind in use during the sailing ship era. Consisting of a wooden box, a 'Takelure' is generally painted brown or reddish-brown; the new acquisition of the German Maritime Museum, however, is intricately painted and bears brass decorations. It belonged to an inland waterway vessel of the F. Wolff & Sohn company, which proudly had its name, its headquarters Karlsruhe and its Vienne branch on the Rhône as well as the date 1851 painted on the device. The Wolff & Sohn company was a manufacturer of perfumes and soaps and - in the tradition of the guild symbols - documented its international connections with a three-master, its inland shipping activities between Karlsruhe and Vienne with an inland vessel. An intricate pictorial programme, painted in the Biedermeier style, turns a simple practical device into the prestige object of an aspiring enterprise." (author's abstract)