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Lot Essay
Hans Ludwig Kienle or Kienlin the Elder was a distinguished silversmith and seems to have been particularly adept at producing animal models. In the Hohenlohe Museum in Neuenstein, Franconia is a remarkably similar model of a horse without rider- the gilding is reversed so the horse is in silver and the base silver-gilt (fig. 1) (G. Taddey, Kostbarkeiten aus dem Hohenlohe-Museum, Stuttgart, 1988, cat. no. 6). Another model of a horse was formerly in the Swiss trade while a fine model of a stag with coral antlers is in the collection of the Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt. A parcel-gilt model of a nef or ship on four wheels with numerous figures of soldiers with pikes, swords and canons and central mast with rigging is also recorded (see G. Jaspar, V. Pröstler and M. Ribbert, Goldschmiedekunst in Ulm, Ulm, 1990 p. 56, cat. no. 21).
This group appears possibly to be related to a bronze equestrian statue with fully clothed Roman warrior by Willem van Testrode, dated 1562-5. This bronze seems, in turn, to derive from an antique marble group, possibly of Martius Curtius or Perseus, formerly in the collection of Cardinal Farnese and now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples. Versions of the van Testrode bronze are in the Speed museum, Kentucky and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (F. Scholten et al, Willem van Testrode, Sculptor (c. 1525-1586) Guiglielmo Flammingo Scultore, Amsterdam, 2003, p. 53 and figs. 60-63). Jan de Bisschop is known to have drawn a copy of the van Testrode bronze, circa 1640 (F. Scholten, op. cit., fig.. 91), which is now in a Swiss private collection.
In the first half of the 17th century the city of Ulm, just thirty miles or so to the west of Augsburg, produced several works on a par with those from its better known neighbour. A magnificent nautilus cup on turtle base with Neptune stem and cover formed as Jonah in the whale's mouth, probably by a member of the Meyer family, circa 1630 (The Wernher Collection, Christie's London, 5 July 2000, lot 340), a superb silver-gilt mounted ostrich cup and cover probably by Johan Caspar Wagner, dated 1639 (G. Jaspar et al, op. cit., p. 54, cat. no. 20), as well as the works of the elder Hans Ludwig Kienlin himself, all attest to the city of Ulm's importance as a silversmithing centre at this period.
(We are grateful to Dr. Ernst Ludwig Richter of Stuttgart for the information on the two other Kienlin cups formed as horses. We would also like to thank Daniel Katz for drawing our attention to the van Testrode bronze).
fig. 1, German parcel-gilt cup by Hans Ludwig Kienlin, circa 1630, Courtesy of the Hohenlohe-Museum, Neuenstein
This group appears possibly to be related to a bronze equestrian statue with fully clothed Roman warrior by Willem van Testrode, dated 1562-5. This bronze seems, in turn, to derive from an antique marble group, possibly of Martius Curtius or Perseus, formerly in the collection of Cardinal Farnese and now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples. Versions of the van Testrode bronze are in the Speed museum, Kentucky and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (F. Scholten et al, Willem van Testrode, Sculptor (c. 1525-1586) Guiglielmo Flammingo Scultore, Amsterdam, 2003, p. 53 and figs. 60-63). Jan de Bisschop is known to have drawn a copy of the van Testrode bronze, circa 1640 (F. Scholten, op. cit., fig.. 91), which is now in a Swiss private collection.
In the first half of the 17th century the city of Ulm, just thirty miles or so to the west of Augsburg, produced several works on a par with those from its better known neighbour. A magnificent nautilus cup on turtle base with Neptune stem and cover formed as Jonah in the whale's mouth, probably by a member of the Meyer family, circa 1630 (The Wernher Collection, Christie's London, 5 July 2000, lot 340), a superb silver-gilt mounted ostrich cup and cover probably by Johan Caspar Wagner, dated 1639 (G. Jaspar et al, op. cit., p. 54, cat. no. 20), as well as the works of the elder Hans Ludwig Kienlin himself, all attest to the city of Ulm's importance as a silversmithing centre at this period.
(We are grateful to Dr. Ernst Ludwig Richter of Stuttgart for the information on the two other Kienlin cups formed as horses. We would also like to thank Daniel Katz for drawing our attention to the van Testrode bronze).
fig. 1, German parcel-gilt cup by Hans Ludwig Kienlin, circa 1630, Courtesy of the Hohenlohe-Museum, Neuenstein