We are grateful to Mr. Willem van de Watering for the attribution made on the basis of comparison with similar works which are signed with the initials 'PW': an Interior with Jesters entertaining Gentlefolk sold in these Rooms 13 March 1987, lot 113, as Dirck van Delen, an Interior with a Lady, formerly in the collection of A.C. Canessa, Rome, and an Interior with elegant Figures in the collection of George Olney Bailey, Jr., New York in 1975. Mr. van de Watering proposes that the artist may be identified with Pieter Willemsz. following the discovery of Amsterdam inventories of 1636 and 1665 where 'perspectives' by Pieter Willemsz. are mentioned (see A. Bredius, Kùnstler-Inventare, pp. 1222 and 1301); he is also mentioned in an unpublished inventory of 1659 (see Bredius's notes in the RKD). In the 1636 inventory the artist is called 'metselaer', which suggests that his principal profession was that of a mason