Lot 73
73
A GERMAN SILVER-GILT TANKARD

Details
A GERMAN SILVER-GILT TANKARD
AUGSBURG, DATED 1595, MAKER'S MARK OF HANS WAIDELIN

Of slightly tapering cylindrical form, the rim foot with an egg-and-dart border, the body elaborately repoussee and chased with scenes of a stag, a fox with his kill and a panther in architectural landscapes, each scene enclosed by an elaborate trailing foliate vine, scroll and strapwork cartouche on a matted ground, the scroll handle with matted acanthus, scroll and oval decoration and applied caryatid, the hinged domed cover chased with similar trailing foliate vines and scrolls on a matted ground, the thumbpiece with a caryatid on one side and a putto on the other, the finial in the form of lion sejant supporting a shield and engraved with the date 1595, marked under base--5 5/8in. (14.3cm.) high
(14 oz.)

Lot Essay

The figure of the stag is based on a woodcut from Cunrat Gesner's book of animals, Thierbuch, Das ist ein kurtze Beschreybung aller vierfussigen Thieren..., published in Zurich in 1563. The same scene appears on a cup and cover of approximately the same date, struck with the maker's mark of Melchior Bair, in the Thyssen Bornemisza Collection, illustrated in Hannelore Muller, European Silver, London, 1986, no. 51. The leopard within the landscape is after a design by Paul Flindt (d. 1618), engraver and goldsmith of Nuremburg (F.W.H. Hollstein, German Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts v. VIII, Amsterdam, 1968, nos. 38-44)

photo captions:

Woodcut of a Stag, from Cunrat Gesner, Thierbuch, Zurich, 1563, pl. LXXXV

Engraving of a Leopard in a Landscape, from Paul Flindt, Acht Stuck Zum Verzeichen, Vienna, 1592, pl. VI