Vensters met maaswerk c. 1780 - 1800

Barend Hendrik Thier made this drawing of window tracery sometime before his death in 1811, using pencil on paper. A fairly straightforward choice of materials, you might think. But in fact, this speaks to a crucial transition in the building trades. Prior to the widespread availability of printed architectural pattern books, which only really took off in the 19th century, builders would circulate designs like these informally, swapping ideas and details. This was how stylistic knowledge was transferred. The pencil medium is also notable. Graphite only became readily available in the late 18th century, and so would have been quite a new technology at the time Thier was working. A relatively inexpensive and easily portable material, it allowed for architectural ideas to be captured quickly, and shared amongst a network of craftspeople. So although this drawing may seem unassuming, it bears witness to important shifts in both the built environment, and the social networks that sustained it.