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Lot Essay
On the 5th of February 1967, a house in Bad-Hersfeld, Germany was demolished to reveal a stash of silver, hidden in one of the early 17th century walls. Among the objects was a silver pipe, four silver beakers, a silver-gilt tankard and twenty-two silver spoons, the present example among them. The silver is thought to have been stowed in the wall during the Thirty Years' War, which brought mercenary fighting and disease to German soil between 1612 and 1648.
The house, 42 Breitenstrasse, probably had some connection to the von der Tann and von Haune families, as two of the discovered spoons were engraved with the initials HMVDT.CVH and the date 1587, for Hans Melchior von der Tann and Cordula von Haune, married in 1585. One of the monograms on the present example is HLVH, further evidence of this event's connection to the von Haune family.
The silver was displayed at the Städtische Museum in Bad-Hersfeld, Germany, shortly after its discovery in 1967.
The house, 42 Breitenstrasse, probably had some connection to the von der Tann and von Haune families, as two of the discovered spoons were engraved with the initials HMVDT.CVH and the date 1587, for Hans Melchior von der Tann and Cordula von Haune, married in 1585. One of the monograms on the present example is HLVH, further evidence of this event's connection to the von Haune family.
The silver was displayed at the Städtische Museum in Bad-Hersfeld, Germany, shortly after its discovery in 1967.