17TH CENTURY

Details

A DUTCH SILVER-MOUNTED CARVED COCONUT CUP
17TH CENTURY
Carved with scenes of Dutchmen and Brazilian Indians with their weapons in a landscape with palm trees, monkeys and a jaguar, with removable lid, the stem replaced in the 19th Century
10 in. (25.5 cm.) high

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve. No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

This lot is not to be sold without reserve.

Lot Essay

These coconut carvings with vignettes including Dutch trading merchants in the Brazilian landscape, are inspired by the famous paintings by Albert Eckhout (1610-1666) and Frans Post (1612-1680), who accompanied Prince Maurice of Nassau (1604-1679), in his expedition to Brasil in 1637-44. The flat head-dresses, hairstyle, and shape of clubs are identical, and the bedraggled stem of the banana tree very like, those depicted in the celebrated paintings of Eckhout in the Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen. The fashion for such memorial cups and their role in collectors cabinets is discussed in R. Fritz, Die Gefasse aus Kokosnuss in Mitteleuropa 1250-1800, Mainz (1983).

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