A roemer, a pie with a spoon and a peeled lemon on pewter plates, a breadroll and a knife on a draped table

Unlike many paintings produced in the workshop of Willem Claesz. Heda, the present lot does not repeat any of this master's recorded compositions. Traditionally attributed to Maerten Boelema de Stomme (active 1642-1664), the painting includes elements such as the plate with the pie and spoon, and the bread roll that are repeated in a signed work by that artist formerly with S. Nijstad, The Hague, 1962, offered at Sotheby Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 7 November 1978, lot 18. In private correspondence (dated 26 November 1999) Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorishes Documentatie, The Hague, notes that the present work can be added to a group of paintings by a single, as yet anonymous, hand close to Willem Claesz. Heda and Pieter Claesz. We are grateful to Mr. Meijer for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.