8 - Balancing the Divine with the Private: The Practices of Hushållning in Eighteenth-Century Sweden

Summary

A cupboard of coins at Leufsta bruk

In 1739 the 19-year-old Charles De Geer travelled from Stockholm to Leufsta bruk to claim his inheritance. Nine years earlier he had inherited from a childless uncle the largest iron-making estate in Sweden, with Leufsta as its centrepiece. For nine years the estate had been run by a group of guardians, including his father Jean Jacques and his older brother Louis. In charge of the day-to-day business was the Directeur at Leufsta, Eric Touscher, and it became his task to prepare Charles De Geer, his master and the future brukspatron at Leufsta, for the life that lay ahead of him, an assignment Touscher took seriously.

De Geer's arrival was the beginning of a new era at Leufsta, a new brukspatron taking possession of his estate, and a poem was written for the occasion: ‘Rejoice, those who make all his work, those who make his iron … your master will arrive. Welcome our Master, our father … to your estate, inheritance and table, we long to obey your commands.’ De Geer was also presented with two hand-written manuscripts, nicely leather-bound as books, by Touscher, and a newly drawn-up plan of the bruk. The first manuscript was a directory of a collection of coins, medallions, books, scientific instruments, etc., assembled for the new master. Touscher noted that he had always had an inclination to collect ‘Historical’ things, but his lack of wealth had prevented him to do so. However, in a deferential mood he had ignored these constraints and established a small collection for his master; the manuscript and the items were a sign of this ambition. It was a foundation on which De Geer, with his exquisite taste and knowledge, could create a collection worthy someone as ‘well-born’ as the new owner of Leufsta.

Some features of this catalogue should be emphasised. One is Touscher's deferential tone. He made sacrifices in order to present his master with a collection and expected some kind of recognition; he acted in accordance with the poem, of obeying, but also as the highest official in the estate's hierarchy. Another feature is the emphasis upon utility; books and scientific instruments should ‘serve … as an edifying pleasure, in one or the other science’.