- First name
- Breghtel
- Last name
- Hans Coenraadt
- Date of Birth
- 1608
- Date of Death
- 1675
- Born in
- -
- Died in
- -
Hans Coenraadt Breghtel originated from Nuremberg, and came to The Hague in about 1640. He is first mentioned as a member of the local guild of St Luke in 1657. In 1669, Breghtel lived at the Noordeinde, in a house called ‘de Spiegel’ (‘the Mirror’). Some of Breghtel’s pieces are still preserved today (Leiden, Lakenhal, inv. no. 3192: ‘goblet of the Winter Queen’). See: Peelen, 1915; Van Gelder, 1982, p. 41.
Spinoza visited Breghtel regarding the 'discovery' of the alchemist Schweitzer. About that visit, he wrote Jarig Jelles:
But, he took quite a different view than Vossius had, saying that in the smelting and the separation the gold had increased and become heavier by an amount equal to the weight of the silver he had put into the crucible for separation. So he firmly believed that the gold which transmuted his silver into gold had something special in it. And he was not the only one to think this: various other Gentlemen present at the time agreed.
(NS, XLIV, p. 584; G 4/196–7).