Herdegen to Linhart, 1561

Stadtarchiv Nürnberg, E29/IV, 232
Herdegen IV Tucher from Lyon to Linhart II about business and a Limoges service, 6.12.1561

Herdegen reports to his father Linhart about the Tucher company’s business affairs, in particular the saffron trade. It also contains information on the situation of German merchants and Protestants in Catholic France. The royal governor in Lyon, he said, was careful to be tolerant. According to Herdegen, he is making sure that people do not "molest" each other.

Towards the end of the letter Herdegen describes the problems that arose with a special order from his father, the production of an enamelled dinner service, known today as the "Tucher service". This unique text allows for an accurate reconstruction of the incidents:

After it had been decided in Nuremberg to supplement existing enamelled pieces from Limoges to form a complete service, four copper presentation bowls and a jug were sent to France to have them enamelled. But now it turned out that the copper was much too thick to enamel. The four bowls made to fit the required diameters by machining but not the jug, whose individual parts would then no longer have fitted together. Therefore Herdegen had experts in Limoges make a sample for Nuremberg – finally the goldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer made a new jug to fit the required size, which was then successfully enamelled in Limoges by Pierre Reymond.

Helge Weingärtner