MARK OF GOTTLIEB MENZEL, AUGSBURG, 1729-1730

Details

A German silver-gilt ewer and basin
Mark of Gottlieb Menzel, Augsburg, 1729-1730
The ewer, helmet-shaped and on shaped circular slightly domed foot, with moulded borders, applied guilloche mid-rib and knop, and scroll handle, chased with strapwork, scrolls and paterae on a partly-textured ground, and applied with ten plaques cast with scenes of putti, the two larger as allegories of Europe, the basin, shaped circular, with moulded and guilloche border, with a broad band of strapwork, scrolls and paterae on a partly-textured ground and applied with similar plaques with classical scenes including Apollo and Daphne, alternating with plaques representing the four continents, the centre with similar border and with a central plaque of Venus and her sea-nymphs drawn on her shell chariot by dolphins, marked on rim of ewer and border of basin
The ewer, 9½in. (23.9cm.) high; the basin, 19½in. (49.9cm.) diam.
84oz. (2,619gr.) (2)

Provenance

With Jacques Kugel, Paris, 1964
The Thyseen-Bornemisza Collection

Literature

H. Müller, European Silver: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, 1986, p.222-223, no.70.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The catalogue of the collection H.Müller, op. cit., p.222 notes that this ewer and basin form was popular in Augsburg from the 1730s until the latter part of the century and was produced by a number of Augsburg goldsmiths including Johan Erhard Heuglin and Johann Englebrecht. An example by Heuglin is illustrated in H. Seling, Die Kunst der Augsburger Goldschmiede 1529-1868, Munich, 1980, vol. II, fig. 849. It has been noted by E. Kris in Goldschmiedearbeiten des Mittlealters, der Renaissance und des Barock, part 1, no. 134, that the applied cast plaques which decorate the dish and ewer appear on many other pieces from this period and were readily available to the Augsburg goldsmiths.

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