MAKER'S MARK OF EUSTACHIUS HOHMAN, NUREMBERG, CIRCA 1600, ALSO STRUCK WITH EARLY 17TH CENTURY STRASSBURG TOWN MARK AND LATER FRENCH CONTROL MARK

Details

A GERMAN SILVER-GILT DRINKING CUP
Maker's mark of Eustachius Hohman, Nuremberg, circa 1600, also struck with early 17th Century Strassburg town mark and later French control mark
Formed as a lady in long dress with flared hem, partly chased with scrolls and foliage on matted ground to simulate brocade, and prick-engraved with two bands of scrolling foliage to simulate embroidery, the chatelaine encircling her waist terminating in a drop at the base of the skirt, holding in her left hand a handkerchief and in her right a pomegranate, her bodice with ruffled shoulders and with ruff around her neck and small hat on her head, marked on skirt
5½ in. (14 cm.) high
Weight 4 oz. (144 gr.)

Provenance

Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt. (1850-1912), Bath House, London, in the Red Room, 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.

Literature

1913 Bath House Inventory, p. 38, no. 209, in the Red Room, in the 'showcase to the left of the fireplace', the figure erroneously described as holding a melon in her left hand.
1914 Wernher Inventory, p. 38, no. 197, again erroneously describing the pomegranate as a melon.

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

A design for a more elaborate drinking cup of similar form by Paulus Flindt, Nuremberg, 1600, is illustrated by J. Haywood (Virtuoso Goldsmiths 1540-1620, 1976, fig. 182). He notes that in use, the cup was reversed and could not be set down until it was drained.

Cf. another example by Meinrad Bauch the Elder, Nuremberg, circa 1600, holding in her left hand a chain, terminating in an acorn (Christie's, Geneva, 9 November 1976, lot 243).

More from WORKS OF ART FROM THE WERNHER COLLECTION

View All