CIRCA 1733, PROBABLY TO COMMEMORATE THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT

Details

A Silesian royal musical marriage-goblet and cover
CIRCA 1733, PROBABLY TO COMMEMORATE THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT
Finely engraved in Hoch and Tiefschnitt with three panels, one showing an obelisk inscribed with the initials FR and EC flanked by four trumpeters and a drummer, the second with eight musicians playing various instruments and the third with a woman playing a lute seated before a table laden with musical instruments and beneath two lines of a musical score, alternating with three panels of figures representing Justice, Plenty and Fortitude within elaborate scroll cartouches, the lower part and stem cut with flutes, the foot with a border of stiff foliage in Hochschnitt, the domed cover with small panels of figures seated playing musical instruments divided by shell and scroll ornament (minute chip to inner rim of cover)
11¾ in. (30 cm.) high

Provenance

Aynhoe Park, Oxfordshire; perhaps from the collection originally formed by Lady Elizabeth Cartwright, neé von Sandizell. Other pieces from this collection were sold at Sotheby's Olympia, 17th December 2003.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick 'The Great' (1712-1786, succeeded to the throne in 1740) married Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern in 1733.

For other goblets of this period of similar form combining both Hoch and Tiefschnitt engraving, see Catalogue, Kestner Museum Hannover, Glas-Sammlung, pl. 48, no. 149; Catalogue, Barokni Rezané Sklo 1600-1760, Museum of Applied Arts, Prague, p. 131, no. 118; and for two scent-flasks see Rudolf von Strasser/Sabine Baumgärtner, Licht und Farbe, pp. 287-88, nos. 168 and 169.

The musical score would not seem to be for a particularly well-known piece of music; in its scoring it resembles a Polonaise, perhaps written for keyboard or violin. Polonaises were fashionable dances throughout Europe at the period.

More from Important Glass and 19th Century Ceramics

View All