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Lot Essay
A major group of pieces by, or attributed to, Reinhold Vasters from the collection of the Late Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild were sold in these Rooms on 14 December 2000. This included a jewelled and enamelled gold-mounted table clock, a similarly mounted rock-crystal cup and cover and a remarkable model of the Queen of Sheba in the Temple of Solomon, the designs for which, like those for this and the next lot, survive in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Reinhold Vasters (1827-1909) was born near Aachen and he entered his mark as a goldsmith in that city in 1853. His early work seems to have concentrated on church silver which was marked very straight- forwardly R. VASTERS in a rectangular punch (M. Rosenberg, Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen, Frankfurt, 1922, vol III p.12). In addition there are two recorded Renaissance style jewels from this period bearing an RV conjoined mark struck on a small applied plaque on the reverse of the jewel. There are however indications that as early as 1850s and, certainly during the following decade, he was producing deliberate fakes in the Gothic and Renaissance styles. In 1865 he was instructed by the Aachen cathedral authorities to alter an early 16th century pax in the treasury to a clasp or morse. Apparently a dozen or so copies were made at that time one of which found its way into the hands of the collector and dealer Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890), (S. Beissel, Gefälschte Kunstwerke, Freiburg-im-Bresgau, 1909, p. 86).
From this period on Vasters seems to have become increasingly wealthy and by 1880 was publicly exhibiting works of art from his own collection. In 1902 he exhibited 500 pieces in Dusseldorf. At the time of the exhibition it was observed that 'among the smaller private collections that of the Aachen goldsmith Reinhold Vasters offers a highly characteristic picture - throughout one notes the specialist and technician. Several decades of cooperation with the greatest genius among nineteenth-century collectors, Spitzer has had a distinct influence on the formation of the collection' (E. Renard, 'Die Kunsthistorische Ausstellung, Düsseldorf, 1902', Rheinlande: Monatschrift für deutsche Kunst, 1902 pp. 41-42)
Apart from the morse of 1865 mentioned above, the designs for the whole, or part, of at least twenty other pieces in the Spitzer collection, including this magnificent jewelled and enamelled gold-mounted agate bowl, are found among the Vasters drawings. Indeed Stephen Beissel writing in the year of Vaster's death observed that Spitzer had 'as is well known, employed for almost fifty years a series of first rate artists in Paris, Cologne and Aachen etc. who made him old things'. It is likely that the other artists referred to were Alfred Andre in Paris and Gabriel Hermeling in Cologne (see Christie's London, The Collection of the Late Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild, 14 December 2000 pp. 102-106, '19th Century "Renaissance" Works of Art: A question of supply and demand').
Reinhold Vasters (1827-1909) was born near Aachen and he entered his mark as a goldsmith in that city in 1853. His early work seems to have concentrated on church silver which was marked very straight- forwardly R. VASTERS in a rectangular punch (M. Rosenberg, Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen, Frankfurt, 1922, vol III p.12). In addition there are two recorded Renaissance style jewels from this period bearing an RV conjoined mark struck on a small applied plaque on the reverse of the jewel. There are however indications that as early as 1850s and, certainly during the following decade, he was producing deliberate fakes in the Gothic and Renaissance styles. In 1865 he was instructed by the Aachen cathedral authorities to alter an early 16th century pax in the treasury to a clasp or morse. Apparently a dozen or so copies were made at that time one of which found its way into the hands of the collector and dealer Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890), (S. Beissel, Gefälschte Kunstwerke, Freiburg-im-Bresgau, 1909, p. 86).
From this period on Vasters seems to have become increasingly wealthy and by 1880 was publicly exhibiting works of art from his own collection. In 1902 he exhibited 500 pieces in Dusseldorf. At the time of the exhibition it was observed that 'among the smaller private collections that of the Aachen goldsmith Reinhold Vasters offers a highly characteristic picture - throughout one notes the specialist and technician. Several decades of cooperation with the greatest genius among nineteenth-century collectors, Spitzer has had a distinct influence on the formation of the collection' (E. Renard, 'Die Kunsthistorische Ausstellung, Düsseldorf, 1902', Rheinlande: Monatschrift für deutsche Kunst, 1902 pp. 41-42)
Apart from the morse of 1865 mentioned above, the designs for the whole, or part, of at least twenty other pieces in the Spitzer collection, including this magnificent jewelled and enamelled gold-mounted agate bowl, are found among the Vasters drawings. Indeed Stephen Beissel writing in the year of Vaster's death observed that Spitzer had 'as is well known, employed for almost fifty years a series of first rate artists in Paris, Cologne and Aachen etc. who made him old things'. It is likely that the other artists referred to were Alfred Andre in Paris and Gabriel Hermeling in Cologne (see Christie's London, The Collection of the Late Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild, 14 December 2000 pp. 102-106, '19th Century "Renaissance" Works of Art: A question of supply and demand').