Lot Essay
The central escutcheon is stamped with the marks of Jens Kahrs (1738-1781) as maker and assay master. The month mark is unidentified. The mounts appear to be original to the piece and it is the unusual style for the date which causes some confusion. However when seen in the context of Bergen, a city on the fringes of the spread of ideas of 18th Century European decorative arts, a cabinet conceived in a style forty years out of date seems plausible. Indeed a rococo escutcheon, also executed by Jens Kahrs in the 1770s and illustrated in Thv. Krohn-Hansen & Robert Kloster, Bergens Gullsmed Kunst fra Laugstiden, Bergen, plate 143, gives credence to the secure dating of this piece to as late as 1748. Another unusual feature of the mounts on the cabinet, the projecting maiden's head, is seen on a sauceboat by Jens Kahr of 1757 (Krohn-Hansen & Kloster, ibid., pl. 159).