Aanvang van 1745, op de hoop dat de oorlog dit jaar beeindigd wordt 1744

Martin Holtzhey created this silver medal in 1745, hoping for an end to the war. Minting coins and medals was a meticulous craft. First, the design would be engraved in steel dies. Then, these dies were used to strike the image onto a metal blank. The cool, gleaming silver lends a sense of importance to the medal. The details are crisp: on one side, a seated female figure representing the Dutch Republic; on the other, a hand opening the door to a temple. Holtzhey no doubt hoped for peace, but was also making a calculated move. Medals like these were tokens of political and economic power, traded among elites. The imagery used in the medal is tied to wider social issues of labor, politics, and consumption. The medal’s message, combined with its material value and the skilled work required to produce it, would have been quite potent. It reminds us that even small objects can carry immense meaning and reflect the complexities of their time.