[SILVER BINDING]. A pair of embossed silver book covers. [Netherlands, first quarter of the eighteenth century]. Folio, 343 x 250mm. (13 1/2 x 9 3/4in.) each, the lower cover with a pair of silver clasps, 25 x 35mm. (1 x 1 3/8in.), slight wear and a few tiny holes.

Details
[SILVER BINDING]. A pair of embossed silver book covers. [Netherlands, first quarter of the eighteenth century]. Folio, 343 x 250mm. (13 1/2 x 9 3/4in.) each, the lower cover with a pair of silver clasps, 25 x 35mm. (1 x 1 3/8in.), slight wear and a few tiny holes.
The front cover with a large central representation of the Crucifixion with Mary and St. John, in a baroque cartouche frame, supported by four cornerpiece portrait roundels of the four Old Testament Patriarchs; the back cover with a large central representation of the Resurrection of Christ with the angel and two astonished guards, supported by four cornerpiece portrait roundels of the Evangelists; each cover design within a fine scroll border and with a similar background of baroque acanthus.

Cf. J.W. Frederiks Dutch Silver: Embossed Ecclesiastical and Secular Plate from the Renaissance until the end of the eighteenth century (The Hague: M. Nijhoff 1961) vol. IV, no. 238, plates 236 and 237 for the front cover; no. 239, plate 235 for the back cover; no. 292, plate 286 for the clasps.

Dr. J.R. de Lorm, Curator of Silver and Gold at the Rijksmuseum, has kindly supplied the localisation and dating of these covers. (2)