The present flask and the following example (lot 151), unrecorded in either glass or porcelain literature, belong to a rare group of flasks considered masterpieces of the porcelain and glass hausmaler Ignaz Preissler (born 1676) who worked for Count Kolowart at Reichenau Castle, Kronstadt, between 1716 and 1753. Other flasks in this group had been tentatively dated to circa 1680 and attributed to Benckhardt; however, modern research has convincingly shown them to be Preissler's work, probably in the style described by him in his lists as 'poetisch muhesame sachen' (loosely translated 'intricate poetic subject painstakingly executed'). For a detailed discussion of Ignaz Preissler's oeuvre on porcelain and glass see Annedore Müller-Hofstede, 'Der Schlesische-Böhmische Hausmaler Ignaz Preissler', Keramos, 1983, pp. 3-50

Only three other pairs of flasks and two single examples in this genre are recorded: the pair, formerly in the Wilfred Buckley Collection and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Wilfred Buckley, European Glass, pls. 37-38, the pair sold by Sotheby's on 5 December 1977, lot 194, one flask now in the Corning Museum of Glass and the other in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, see Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 21, 1979, p. 122, nos. 15 and 14 respectively and the pair formerly in the Berlin Schlossmuseum, now lost, see Gustav E. Pazaurek, Deutsche Fayence-und Porzellan-Hausmaler, pp. 25-26 and pl. 12 and Robert Schmidt, Das Glas (1912), pp. 211-212. For the single flask in the von Strasser Collection see Rudolf von Strasser/Walter Spiegl, Dekoriertes Glas, pp. 223-255, no. 80, and for the recently published example in the Kasteel-Museum, Sypesteyn, The Netherlands, see Reino Liefkes, Glaswerk uit drie Utrechtse Kastelen, p. 70, no. 47

The von Strasser, Corning and Berlin flasks all bear the engraved arms of the family of Loën, Freiherren of Anhalt-Dernstadt, Latin inscriptions and include both Bacchic scenes and scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, whilst the present pair closely resemble the subjects on the lost pair of Berlin flasks, as described by Pazaurek, ibid. and Schmidt, ibid., one of these being painted with an extended view of Frankfurt and its companion almost identical to lot 151. The pair in the Victoria and Albert Museum are painted with Diana and Callisto, a Bacchanalian scene and with view of a town perhaps on the Rhine and the Sypesteyn flask is painted with Bacchus seated on a barrel bearing an unidentified coat-of-arms and the reverse with a view of Bacharach, see Martin Zeiller and Matthaeus Merian, Topographia Palatinus Rheni, vol. 6, 1645, p. 11 (view reversed). Thus, it would suggest that this remarkable group of flasks were specially commissioned in sets of four, by important persons whilst Preissler was under the patronage of Count Kolowart whose library at Reichenau Castle would have been readily available to him for inspiration

Although the sources for the views of both Vienna and Pfalz im Rhein bei Caub on the present and following lot are so far unidentified, comparison should be made to the engraving of a view Vienna illustrated by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, vol. 6, Cologne, 1618, pl. 22 (see illustration). Preissler's view showing a new bridge over the Danube and certain emblemishments to the city walls would probably have been taken from an engraving some twenty or so years later than the view illustrated here

'Europa and the Bull' from Ovid's Metamorphoses, shows here the goddess seated on an enamoured beast (Jupiter). The shield with the four hand-shaking arms symbolises the four Continents, whilst the pomegranate is a symbol of Christian unity under one authority, the fasces, and together with a tree is also symbolic of chastity and virginity. Europa had once made vows of perpetual celibacy and the broken tree, shown on this flask, perhaps presages the breaking of those vows in 'The Rape of Europa'. We are grateful to Mr. F.G.A.M. Smit for this interpretation of the iconography