page_title: Grill family
section_title: Anthoni Grill (I)
hierarchical_section_title: Grill family / Anthoni Grill (I)
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Beschrijving Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 273-317 Gezicht op de Pijpenmarkt, met van links naar rechts de ingangen van de Zoutenhaansteeg, de Kerksteeg en de Witte Kelksteeg. De nummers 275-285 zijn inpandig. Documenttype foto Vervaardiger Jager, A. (uitgever) Gebroeders Douwes (uitgever) Collectie Collectie Stadsarchief Amsterdam: kabinetfoto's Datering 1867 t/m 1875 Geografische naam Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal Inventarissen http://archief.amsterdam/archief/10005/1296 Afbeeldingsbestand 010005001296 Generated with Dememorixer
context_page_description: The Grill family are noted for their contribution to the Swedish iron industry and for exports of iron and copper during the 18th century. Starting as silversmiths and experts on noble metals the Grills became engaged in a wide range of businesses. After 1700 the family began its rise to prominence. They owned ironworks, while operating wharfs, and importing material related to shipbuilding. The Grills benefited from mercantilist policy. With a positive balance on their account the Grills became engaged in banking, also in the Dutch Republic; around 1720 in the market for government liabilities and then mediating large credits and clearing international bills of exchange. The Grills had significant influence with the Swedish East India Company; three members became directors of the SOIC and the Grill firm traded as members of the SOIC and privately.
  All the noted Grills were in some way connected to the main Grill Trading House and to each other. Some Grills married a relative, others helped their nephews into business. In this way the Grill name was kept and passed on through the generations.
context_section_description: Anthonie Grill (1607-1675) was born in Augsburg as the son of goldsmith Balthasar Grill (1568-1614) and Rosina Schweigler. The city was a centre of European silversmithery. During the Thirty Years' War, the Lutheran city was occupied by a Bavarian army but recaptured by the Swedish army in April 1632. At some point, Anthoni and his brother Andries moved to Amsterdam. The two silversmiths both got married in January 1634, and Andries for the second time in February 1640, who had then settled in The Hague. Their younger brother Johannes (I), a journeyman, got married in September 1645. 
  In December 1635, Anthoni promised his business partner to reveal a secret about smelting silver, which is generally found in a combined state in nature, usually with copper or lead. In 1637 and 1642 he took on and lodged two apprentices. In 1638 he became a burgher of Amsterdam. In March 1651 Anthoni bought a property for 12,000 guilders between Looiersgracht and Passeerdersstraat. There Anthoni set up a number of laboratories or furnaces, testing fresh and recycled metals to ascertain their purity for jewellery and coin making. In 1653, Anthoni, somehow connected to or observed by members of the Hartlib Circle, cooperated in an alchemist project with his brother Andries. According to Johann Friedrich Schweitzer they used a hydrochloric acid. 
  It is possible that a son of Michiel le Blon, a goldsmith, art dealer and agent for Christina, Queen of Sweden, informed the Swedish Board of Mines about Grill's experiments to extract precious metals from ore through the use of what Grill called a "secret matter". On 28 May 1658, this earned him the position of riksguardie, working for the Münzmeister at the Swedish Mint. He also got a 30-years patent on his "secret" extraction methods. Anthoni moved to Stockholm after 10 June 1659. His silver smelting lab was rented out by Cornelis le Blon to the chemical engineer Johann Rudolf Glauber, until it was sold for 20,880 guilders on a foreclosure auction in January 1661.
  Grill continued his smelting experiments with cupellation of noble metals in Sweden. With three companions he was allowed to conduct experiments with copper and lead from the Lövåsens silvermine in Stora Skedvi. However, his methods were never successful and his work at the mint was substandard. His deficiencies at the mint were brought to light by Georg Stiernhielm in 1662, and the next year, his smelting methods were strongly criticized by the Board of Mines where its chairman, Erik Fleming, accused Grill of defaming him. In 1663, Grill was demoted to handling the weighing of precious metals and other "minor items and tasks", while Jöran Low became the new riksguardie. in 1661 he introduced credit paper (Kreditivsedlar), the first European banknotes with copper as collateral. The lack of silver, the cumbersome size and weight of copper plate money eventually prompted Sweden to become the first country in Europe to issue such notes. In 1624 Sweden had introduced a copper standard; in 1664 Sweden reintroduced the silver standard.
caption: Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal where Anthoni Grill (I) began his career. The alley on the left led to the jeweller shop in Kalverstraat.
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