Martin Holtzhey (1697,

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

– 1764,

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

), was an 18th-century German medallist and mint master, active in the Netherlands.

Biography

He was the father of the medallist

Johann Georg Holtzhey Johann Georg Holtzhey (1729, Amsterdam – 1808, Amsterdam), was an 18th-century Dutch medallist and mint master. Biography According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) he was the son of Martin Holtzhey, master of the mint ...

.Martin Holtzhey
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

He worked in the Hague, Amsterdam, Harderwijk and Middelburg. In 1722 he joined the Lutheran church of Amsterdam and he married there in 1725, the same year that he entered the silversmith's guild.article
G. van der Meer, ''De medailleur Martinus Holtzhey'' in Teylers Museum magazine 15 (1987), pp.9-12 The next year his son Johann Georg was born, and in 1636 his youngest son Martin Jr. was born. He started striking medals for special occasions and made a name for himself among collectors in this way, making medals for major events, to mark an anniversary, or simply to herald in a new year. Examples are his 1736 medal in honor of the 200th anniversary of

Menno Simons Menno Simons (1496 – 31 January 1561) was a Roman Catholic priest from the Friesland region of the Low Countries who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church and became an influential Anabaptist religious leader. Simons was a contemporary o ...

leaving the Catholic faith, and his 1740 medal in celebration of the 300th anniversary of

Laurens Janszoon Coster Laurens Janszoon Coster (c. 1370, Haarlem – c. 1440), or Laurens Jansz Koster, is the purported inventor of a printing press from Haarlem. He allegedly invented printing simultaneously with Johannes Gutenberg and was regarded by some in t ...

's discovery of moveable type. When Holtzhey struck such "historical medals", he often included a paper explaining the symbolism he used on them, a tradition that was continued later by his son Johann Georg. His medals were popular with wealthy followers of the enlightenment, such as

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (25 March 1702 – 8 April 1778) was a wealthy Dutch Mennonite merchant and banker, who died childless, leaving a legacy of two million florins (in today's terms: about EUR 80 million) to the pursuit of religion, art ...

. The medals in his collection are among the few items collected by Teyler himself that are still part of the inventory of

Teylers Museum Teylers Museum () is an art, natural history, and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. Established in 1778, Teylers Museum was founded as a centre for contemporary art and science. The historic centre of the museum is the neoclassical Oval R ...

today, such as his 1736 medal struck for completing the Lutheran church of Rotterdam. In 1749 he handed his Amsterdam workshop over to his son Johann Georg when he moved to

Harderwijk Harderwijk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city of the Netherlands. It is served by the Harderwijk railway station. Its population centres are Harderwijk and Hierden. Harderwijk is on the western boundary of the Veluwe. The southea ...

to become mint master of

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

. He commemorated this with a medal in his own honor. In 1755 he commemorated himself again on the occasion of his 25th anniversary of striking historical medals. He published a catalog of them for his collectors, assisted by his son Johann Georg called ''Catalogus der medailles of gedenkpenningen betrekking hebbende op de voornaamste historien der Vereenigde Nederlanden''.

Story of the mysterious 'Zeeuwse duit'

In 1754 he became mint master of

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

. This is the same year that a strange penny piece was coined in Middelburg known as the "Ementor

duit The duit (plural: ''duiten''; en , doit) was a copper Dutch coin worth 2 ''penning'', with 8 duit pieces equal to one ''stuiver'' and 160 duit pieces equal to one ''gulden''. In Dutch Indonesia 4 duit pieces were equal to one ''stuiver''. T ...

". It was possibly a joke played by Holtzhey's assistant, his son Martin jr. who assisted his father until he took over his position as mint master. The coat of arms of

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

include a lion half under water. The motto is 'Luctor et Emergo', or "I struggle and emerge". In the year 1754 the new duits were coined with 'Luctor et Ementor', or "I struggle and go under", which would imply the lion is drowning rather than emerging from the floods.Zeeland duit
story File:Martin Holtzhey - 1754 Zeeuwse duit LUCTOR et EMERGO.jpg, Luctor et Emergo File:Martin Holtzhey - 1754 Zeeuwse duit LUCTOR et EMENTOR.jpg, Luctor et Ementor File:Coatofarmszeeland.PNG, Coat of arms of Zeeland

References

New Year's medal
by Martin Holtzhey in 1746] in the Nederlands Gevangenismuseum via the Geheugen van Nederland] {{DEFAULTSORT:Holtzhey, Martin 1697 births 1764 deaths Dutch medallists German medallists People from Ulm