Kwitantie voor Moses de Vries Possibly 1868

This receipt, created by Frans Buffa en Zonen in Amsterdam in 1868, is made of paper, and ink applied with a quill. It records payment for bronze commemorative medals, likely for a ceremony of some kind. The paper itself is a telling material, common enough, yet capable of carrying official weight. Look closely, and you’ll notice the penmanship and the elegant flourishes which give the document its aesthetic quality. It elevates the simple record-keeping to a level of craft. We see an intersection of commerce, culture, and the hand-made. While bronze, the primary material of the medals, is durable, the receipt is fragile. It speaks volumes about the bureaucratic processes of the 19th century. But it also hints at the broader context of labor and production. The medal-making would have involved skilled casting and finishing, a craft-based practice embedded in social and economic realities. This receipt invites us to consider the value of both tangible objects and the systems that surround their creation, blurring traditional boundaries between art, craft, and commerce.