Vervolg van een instructie voor het solderen van ijzer 1849 - 1895

Curator: Willem Koekkoek created this sketch, titled “Vervolg van een instructie voor het solderen van ijzer”, sometime between 1849 and 1895. It’s ink and pencil on paper and is currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Wow, it's…a page from a notebook? Honestly, it feels like stumbling across someone's personal thoughts, jotted down maybe in a hurry. You know, that end-of-the-day brain dump onto paper! Curator: Yes, in some ways that's what this is: documentation of the beginnings of industrialisation. There are notes here on irons and textiles, along with lists of materials. What strikes me is that in examining an historical drawing like this, one witnesses not just rudimentary notes, but an early exploration into the way labour and skill were being formalized and captured through text. The notes imply the transition from embodied artisanal knowledge towards the written instructions that would characterize industrialized work processes. Editor: So it’s the birth of the instruction manual? Curator: In essence, yes! Here is evidence that there were new forms of communicating processes and transferring skills. You see this is how social power structures emerge; even mundane texts can be a vessel of ideological frameworks about production, and labor at a key point of cultural transition. It asks us what such forms of instructions reveal about standardisation, access to knowledge, and ultimately, control of labour during industrialisation? Editor: Control of labour? Man, it's easy to forget how deeply those seeds are sown. I see that. But let me return to this from an aesthetic perspective: it almost feels like poetry; this simple script across a creamy page and what is exposed...is not. Do you see how such ordinary texts can also exist with multiple emotional resonance and offer profound insights? Curator: Indeed! Editor: A last glance reminds me it's time to sharpen my pencils—or perhaps, it’s time to finally solder that broken clock in the attic! This artwork, so raw and simple, inspires one to make connections, even if they're just in your head!