the Empire in 1787, as the noble _von Holbeinsberg_. So much
for the eldest branch, that of Philip Holbein.

The younger boy, Jacob, was a goldsmith in London after Holbein's death.
The evidence seems to show that he was never here previous to that
event,--which of itself may have first occasioned his coming, though
hardly at the time, as Jacob was not more than thirteen at his father's
death. A document in existence proves that he also died in London, about
1552, and apparently unmarried; at which time his elder brother, Philip,
was still in Lisbon.

Katharina, the elder daughter, the baby of the Basel painting, seems to
have left no descendants. She married a butcher of Basel and died in
1590. And in the same year, very likely from one of the frequent
epidemics so fatal to Basel, died Kuenegoldt, Elsbeth's youngest child.
The Merian family of Frankfurt-am-Main claims an hereditary right to
the artistic gifts of its famous copper-engraver, Mathew Merian, as
descendants of Holbein through this daughter Kuenegoldt, who, when she
died, was the wife of Andreas Syff, a miller, of Basel. According to
the greatest authority on this subject, Eduard His, to whose exhaustive
researches we owe almost all that is known of Holbein's family, the
Merian claims have not, so far, been proved by actual archives; but he
is of opinion that there is considerable circumstantial evidence to
support their claim to be lineal descendants of Holbein through the
female line.

But in 1529, when the family group was painted, neither Jacob nor
Kuenegoldt were yet born; and the painter was much more concerned with
the anxieties of a living father than with the shadowy cares of an
ancestor.

And dark enough was the outlook in Basel, where the Lutheran agitation
had, as Erasmus said, "frozen the arts." Before Holbein came back from
England many churches had abjured all pictures. The tide of religious
antagonism had, as we know, driven both Erasmus and Bonifacius Amerbach
for a time to a Catholic stronghold; and had driven their old friend
Meyer to do literal battle on behalf of the Church.

Altar paintings were out of the question. And Holbein could but devote
himself to designs for the printers and for goldsmiths. Many beautiful
compositions for both crafts remain to testify of his matured powers
and constant industry. The exquisite designs for dagger-sheaths, in
particular, are rightly counted among the treasures of art. But in the
summer of 1