Some time ago some unusual printed items came to light in the National Library when the Library’s conservator took in hand a kind of leather wallet thought to have come to the Library long ago as a wrapper round a manuscript. The manuscript had been removed at some point and given other protection, but this unmarked “binding” had been kept. On closer examination the conservator noticed pictures on a paper lining glued inside the wallet and in a pocket, and he decided to loosen the lining, gather the fragments and repair them according to the rules of the craft. They then turned out to be three coloured woodcuts: a single picture of Frederick V, King of Iceland 1746–66, and a pair of pictures, one of Frederick V and the other of Queen Louise.
It is the last of these that we have chosen as the Highlight of the month this time. It bears the following text in Icelandic:
Drottníng Lovísa, med Brióst-Skyllde. Drotning til Danmerkur og Noregs, Vinda og Gauta, Arfa-Princessa til Eng-
lands, Frankarijkis og Irlands, Curfyrstaleg Princessa til Brwnsvík-Lyneborgar,
Hertug-inna í Slesvík, Holstein, Stormaren og Ditmersken, Greifa-inna
til Oldenborg og Delmenhorst, etc. etc. etc.
Fœdd þann 18 Decembr. 1724. Gipt þann 11 Dec. 1743. Øndud þann 19 Dec. 1751.
Lifande Lijkíng hier Lovísœ Drotníngar
(Lijsande sœtt af sier, siaalf medan lijfs Hwn var)
Siaa þu nw sveipada! sinne í Purpur-Dragt,
Enn hvør kann afmaala, ut-valldra aa himnum Prakt?
___________________________________________________________________________
Kaupenhafn, þrickt og er til kaups hiaa T. L. Borup, buande í stóra Helliggeistes Strœte. (In plain English: Queen Louise, with breast shield. Queen of Denmark and Norway, of the Wends and the Goths, Hereditary Princess of England, France and Ireland, Electoral Princess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duchess of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen, Countess of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, etc. etc. etc. Born 18 December 1724. Married 11 December 1743. Died 19 December 1751. Here is the living likeness of Queen Louise (radiating sweetness herself while she was alive): see her now wrapped in her purple robe! But who can portray the splendour of the chosen in heaven? Copenhagen, printed and for sale at T. L. Borup’s, living in Store Helliggeistes Stræde.)
Queen Louise was English by birth, the daughter of King George II and Caroline Wilhelmina. She was thought a charming woman and is described as radiating joy of life, loving to dance, listen to music and watch plays. Great hopes were placed in her, and so there was deep grief at court and in the whole realm when she died in the prime of life.
Thomas Larsen Borup ran a printing house in Copenhagen from 1756 to 1770 and was known not least for publishing broadsheets with woodcuts, among them chest prints, “kisteblade” or “kistebilleder” in Danish, which were often fixed inside the lids of chests and revealed when the chest was opened. It is not known which Icelander or Icelanders were involved in this publication. Halldór Jakobsson, later district magistrate in Strandasýsla, and Jón Ólafsson, deputy lawman, come to mind, since both had poems to Frederick V printed by Borup, but others are certainly possible.
Drottning Lovísa, með brjóstskildi is a rare printed item. Apart from the National Library’s copy, only one copy is known, which the Royal Library in Copenhagen bought at the beginning of the 20th century. That copy is incomplete, lacking the bottom part (the verse and the imprint). It is kept with other treasures in the Royal Library’s picture department, where it is beautifully mounted, and a picture of it was recently (2008) published online in Den Nationale Billedbase.
[ click for a larger picture ]