MAKER'S MARK OF DOMINIKUS SALER, AUGSBURG, 1695-1700

細節

A GERMAN PARCEL-GILT MOUNTED NAUTILUS SHELL CUP
Maker's mark of Dominikus Saler, Augsburg, 1695-1700
On domed lobed foot with crimped border, the lobes above repoussé and chased with shells including an amonite, with foliage between, the stem formed as a standing male figure wearing a loin cloth applied with feathers, a turban on his head and with bow and arrow across his shoulder, the shell enclosed by four engraved foliate straps with scalloped edges with similar borders, flanked by two large hippocamps and pierced and carved with central visor and scrolls to reveal the chambers, the finial formed as the standing figure of Neptune holding in his right hand the reins to the hippocampi, and, in his left, a trident, marked on base
16½ in. (42 cm.) high
Gross weight 40 oz. (1,263 gr.)

來源

Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt. (1850-1912), Bath House, London, by whom bequeathed, with a life interest to his widow, Alice, Lady Wernher, subsequently Lady Ludlow (1862-1945), to their son
Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt., G.C.V.O. (1893-1973), Bath House, London, and from 1948, Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, and by descent.

出版

1913 Bath House Inventory, p. 131, no. 653, in the safe, the stem described (erroneously?; see note, below) as 'an African warrior'
1914 Wernher Inventory, p. 87, no. 436, the stem again erroneously described as 'an African warrior'.

注意事項

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.

拍品專文

Dominikus Saler (d. 1718), became a master in 1696. As well as ecclesiastical silver, he is recorded as making a number of chased cups and beakers with covers including examples in the Kassell Museum, The National Museum, Budapest and The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg.

The figure stem is closely related to the designs of Jean Le Pautre (1618-1682), particularly a design by him for a gueridon torchère or candlestand. While the design shows the figure's head slightly turned, the details of dress, boots and bow and arrow are all found on the silver stem by Saler. Pairs of gueridon torchères, which appear to be Le Pautre's own invention, were made to flank dressing tables or sideboards. He introduced the concept about the time he was elected Dessignateur et Graveur to the French Royal Academy in 1660. His designs were influential, not only in France, but also throughout Europe, particularly in England and Germany.

A pair of Augsburg andirons with figures made by Johannes Kilian circa 1680, now in the Kremlin Museum, Moscow, are similarly attired to the present figure and also clearly after Le Pautre's designs (L. Seelig, Silber und Gold, Augsburger, Goldschmiedekunst für die Höfe Europas, Munich, 1994, pp. 325-326, no. 75). The andiron figures are described as male and female West Indian islanders, the male, as in the present lot, holding a bow and arrow, an attribute of the Americas. It has also been suggested however, that the stem figure may represent a Nubian symbolically bearing the fruits of the sea.