A METAL-MOUNTED AMBER CASKET

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Details

A METAL-MOUNTED AMBER CASKET
Circle of Georg Schreiber (active 1616-43) and later
Of architectural form and made of opaque and transparent amber, the body decorated with panels carved in relief with scrolling foliage, fruit, and fantastical grotesque figures, the front and back each with tapering pilasters surmounted by herm busts of men and women, with a drawer at bottom centre, the ends each with a hinged loop handle held by grotesque masks, the hinged lid with further rectangular superstructure with hinged lid decorated on the top with an oval relief under transparent amber, the underside decorated with amber veneer in a diamond pattern, (losses, replacements, restorations)
8¼ in. (21 cm.) high; 9¼ in. (23.5 cm.) wide; 55/8 in. (14.2 cm.) deep

Provenance

As lot 1.
Rothschild inv. nos. P.48 and E.de R.3..(?).

Literature

G. Reineking von Bock, Bernstein - Das Gold der Ostsee, Munich, 1981, pp. 88-98, figs. 113-34.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The use of contrasting types of amber, the architectural form, and the carving style of the foliate panels are virtually identical to several caskets tentatively attributed to the Königsberg amber worker Georg Schreiber. Particularly relevant is a casket in the Schatzkammer der Residenz, Munich (Reineking von Bock, op. cit., pp. 96-8, figs. 131-2 and 134), which is itself attributed to Schreiber on the basis of its similarities to five surviving pieces signed by him.

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