These attractive little copper plates are attributed to Melchior Brassaw, an artist registered with the guild of Saint Luke who painted religious subjects as well as portraits and genre paintings.
This series of eight oils on copper highlights men and women in their daily lives: a woman with a mousetrap, a poultry seller, a man reading a letter for another, giving him news, a glasses merchant, a teacher giving a reading lesson, a woman unwinding a ball of yarn, a lace maker, a man with a tankard (beer mug) in his hand.