Grill family

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.

For more than 25 years Anthoni had lived in Amsterdam, but moved to Stockholm when he was appointed as the Riksguardie (the national appraiser) responsible for the quality of alloys and the accuracy of weights and measures, and the stock of precious metals used in minting.

[13][c] In December 1635, Anthoni promised his business partner[d] to reveal a secret about smelting silver, which is generally found in a combined state in nature, usually with copper or lead.

There Anthoni set up a number of laboratories or furnaces, testing fresh and recycled metals to ascertain their purity for jewellery and coin making.

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.

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,[e] 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.

[19] 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.

[42] During the Great Northern War led by King Charles XII, Abraham gave large sums of money to the state and during a time of famine, he sold grain at reduced price to the needy.

Around 1722, he moved to Amsterdam where he participated in his uncles' trading house, dealing in copper plates and iron[45] and supplying the Dutch East India Company between 1722 and 1731 with silver.

The bars were cast in private factories, run by assayers, from melted down coins, mainly from Spanish American "reales".

[51] In 1747 they sold the silver melting business at the end of Spiegelgracht, and concentrated on banking and assurance on ships and goods for customers in Sweden.

[59] During the Amsterdam banking crisis of 1763, he was considerably involved in the bankruptcy of Leendert Pieter de Neufville, who failed to come to an agreement with his bankers.

This led to economic downturn as industrialists were forced to sell off their machinery to pay off debts, and workers suddenly lost their jobs.

[7] Their sister Helena Catharina (1739–1804) owned a quarter in the profitable "La Jalousie" plantation along the Commewijne River and stayed in business.

He imported salt from Portugal and the Mediterranean, silver, tobacco and paintings from the Netherlands, and shipbuilding material (pitch, tar, cloth, hemp and planks) from the Baltic countries.

[79] The money for the coup had to be smuggled out from the Grill House in Stockholm, to the Royal castle in double-bottomed wooden troughs filled with mortar.

[89] Adolf (Adolph) Ulric Grill (19 March 1752 – 1 October 1797) was a Swedish ironworks owner and scientific collector of animals and fossils for his cabinet of curiosities at Söderfors.

[98] The factory passed through several owners and is, since 1995, owned and operated by Scana Steel Söderfors AB, a company with production in Norway, Sweden and China.

[101] [102] The ironworks at Österbybruk was established by King Gustav I of Sweden with the help of German experts during the 16th century and specialised in making munitions.

During the 17th century, the factories were merged with Lövsta and Gimo, under the directions of Louis De Geer, making it the second-largest ironworks in Sweden.

Iron bars produced at these ironworks were stamped with a "Double Bullet" mark, which guaranteed high and consistent quality.

The trading house was discontinued with the death of Johan Abraham in 1799, and the ironworks was sold to Anna Johanna (III), the wife of Adolf Ulric.

The mansion was not completed until 1780, due to the decline of the East India trade, accusations of financial misconduct against Claes and Johan Abraham and the banking crises in Amsterdam in 1763.

During the 20th century, the ironworks were, through several owners, transformed and diversified into a sawmill, pulp and paper industry, chemical plant, dairy and agricultural companies.

He started negotiations for the purchase of land, manor and factory at Godegård, at that time the largest ironworks in Östergötland, and bought them all in 1775.

When the ironworks folded the manor became a retirement home for elderly gentlemen, a spa, a house for seminars and workshops, and in 2010, a noted restaurant listed in the White Guide 2012.

He had claimed that he was in possession of a secret "matter" that would enable him to extract much more copper, lead, silver and gold from the ore than by other conventional methods.

When the gallows were moved further away from town to make way for a new shipyard, the Stora Stads wharf, where ships for the SOIC were built, the area around Ersta became sought after and was called "a garden".

In 1770, he established a crucible steel factory at Ersta with the help of Bengt Andersson Qvist, a member of the Swedish Board of Mines.

"Chine de commande" dish, a private commission, with the Grill coat of arms. [ 1 ]
Svindersvik , a country house owned by the Grills with the SOIC flag. [ a ]
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal where Anthoni Grill (I) began his career. The alley on the left led to the jeweller shop in Kalverstraat.
Grill townhouse (left), bought by Anthoni (II) in 1681.
Keizersgracht 596, owned by Anthoni (III) from 1713
Abraham Grill (I) the Elder .
Herengracht 72, where Anthoni lived in 1742.
Keizersgracht en het Huis met de Hoofden , where the brothers Grill lived in 1752
by Cornelis Springer
Claes Grill (I) by Gustaf Lundberg
Christina Elisabeth Grill and Johan Abraham Grill by Gustaf Lundberg
Jean (Johan) Abraham Grill
In the Anchor-Forge at Söderfors by Pehr Hilleström , depicting Adolf Ulric on the right.
The Grill house in Gamla stan, Stockholm
Grill manor, Uppsala
Arvfurstens Palace, Stockholm
Svindersvik in Nacka
Söderfors manor, main building
Söderfors ironworks, c. 1800 by Elias Martin
Österbybruk mansion, main building
The "Double Bullet" stamp
The 19th-century blast furnaces at the Iggesunds bruk
Godegård manor
Hand wrought iron nail for the ship Götheborg III
The Trehörnings blast furnace
Administration building at Garphyttan.
Nyckelviken manor, main building
Skebo manor
Coal storage at the Ortala ironworks
Marker at Stora Skedvi
Ersta manor