Groningen, Grote Markt – after Carel Christiaan Anthony Last, 1834

“Groningen – Het Stadshuis, het Kantoor van Waarborg, de Waag en een Gedeelte van de Groote-Markt” [Groningen – the town hall, the assay office, the weigh house and a section of the Grote Markt], lithograph made after a drawing by Carel Christiaan Anthony Last and published by Jan Oomkens in 1834. Coloured by a later hand. Size (including text): 16 × 19.5 cm.

The view shows the very centre of Groningen, the Grote Markt, with the so-called “riepen“: narrow, separated paths running along the houses and marked by rows of bollards. In 1870 these were replaced by pavements.

The new Town Hall stands prominently on the square. Prior to its construction a design competition was organised, won by Jacob Otten Husly, director of the Drawing Academy in Amsterdam. Construction was halted in 1792 due to financial difficulties, and the project also lost its main advocate when Mayor Van Iddekinge died. His successors introduced numerous alterations and cost-cutting measures, and only at the beginning of the nineteenth century could work resume. The new classical Town Hall was finally completed in 1810.

Behind the Town Hall stands the Assay Office (Kantoor van Waarborg, also known as the “Goudkantoor“), the official bureau for the testing of gold and silver, recognisable by its richly ornamented façade. Between 1814 and 1887 the fineness of precious metal objects was tested here and certified with official marks, allowing them to be legally traded. On the far right stands the Weigh House.

Price: Euro 195,-