Holbein's Dagger Scabbard

Drawing from Berlin

Drawing from Basel

olbein's first attempt with dances of death was a pen and wash drawing of a dagger sheath. The sheath itself was engraved by Urs Graf and is marked with the year 1521.(1)

A purist might say that the sheath is Holbein's only dance of death, since his dance of death alphabet and great dance of death really belong to the genre of emblem books.

If fact there are two versions of this drawing. One of them is stored in Berliner Bauakademie, while the other one in Basler Kunstsammlung is thought to be a (reversed and inferior) copy of the one in Berlin.(2)

he drawing in Berliner Bauakademie used to be owned by Mechel, who engraved a copy in copper along with his copies of Rubens' copies of Holbein (see pictures to the left and right). Douce writes about this copy: »M. Mechel has added another print on this subject, viz, the sheath of a dagger, a design for a chaser. It is impossible to exceed the beauty and skill that are manifested in this fine piece of art«.

Deuchar: Dance from Holbein's scabbard

Woodcut from "*The Dance of death exhibited . .*"

he dagger sheath was copied by David Deuchar (to the left), although you'd have to know it was a dagger sheath to recognize it.

The woodcut to the right is from Francis Douce's book The dance of death exhibited in elegant engravings on wood. It appears to be a woodcut based on Mechel's copperplates.

Holbein has used his dagger sheath as inspiration for his later works, the dance of death alphabet (see initials C, D, I, K and O) and Holbein's great dance of death (see monk and soldier).

Further information:

Footnotes: (1) (2)

I have taken this information from A. Woltmann, Holbein und seine Zeit, 1879 page 260, footnote 1. The author mentions several Swiss armour smiths, who have copied Holbein's drawing, and adds: »[…] hier zu einem von Urs Graf gravirten Dolch mit der Jahrzahl 1521 gehörig«.

I'm merely quoting from "Holbein's Totentanz und seine Vorbilder" by Alexander Goette, 1897. The author spends 3 pages arguing why one drawing is inferior to the other.