Chirurgijnsgilde, gildepenning van Claas Coppens 1684

This is an anonymous guild badge made of silver in 1684 for Claas Coppens, a surgeon. These badges were more than mere symbols of professional affiliation; they were assertions of identity, markers of status, and pledges of allegiance to a community bound by shared knowledge and practices. On one side we see a skull and crossbones, evoking the ever-present specter of mortality and the dangers inherent in surgical practice. It serves as a reminder of the stakes involved in the surgeon’s craft, a constant negotiation with life and death. The other side shows a mortar, a visual shorthand for the preparation of remedies and the alchemical blend of science and tradition that defined early medicine. The badge represents the surgeon's place in society at a time of emerging scientific inquiry. They lived in a time when medical authority was shifting, and this object reflects the personal and professional life of a surgeon navigating those currents.