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拍品專文
Musk-balls originate from ancient times and were widespread in Europe from the medieval period. They were designed to contain a highly prized odiferous reddish-brown substance secreted in a gland or sac by the male musk deer known as 'musk' or 'must', which gives off a powerful scent once moistened, see H. Meininghaus et. al., Five Centuries of Scent and Elegant Flacons, Stuttgart, 1998, p. 54-55, who re-produces three 17th century German examples.
The musk-ball is described in Edmund Launert et. al., Perfume and Pomanders: Scent and Scent Bottles from the Scharzkopf Collection and European Museums, Thirsk, 1987, p. 17-19:
'In its simplest form it is a metal sphere which either has holes at top and bottom or all over the surface. There is an example in the Museum of London, the spherical body of which has holes in concentric rows; it is probably early 15th century in date... One may assume that since musk was weighed in against gold, the wealthy owners who owned pomanders spared no expense and commissioned the best goldsmiths of the day for these items.... All early pomanders have one common characteristic: they are never subdivided, since they held a single mass of solid aromatic material.'
Contemporary recipes details the composition of the musk ball. For example, John Partridge, The Treasury of Commodious Conceits and Hidden Secrets and May be Called the Housewife's Closet of Heathful Provision, London, 1573, which sold for 4 pence and was republished in 1600 describes:
To make a pomander, take Benjamin one ounce, of storar calamite half and ounce, of laudanum the eight part of an ounce. Beat them to powder and then put them into a brazen ladle with a little damask or rose water. Set them over fire or coals till they be dissolved and be soft like wax... when it is cold make it small, put to it your musk and civet. Then take your pome that you have chafed and gathered together, and by little and little (with some sweet water if need be) gather up the amber, musk and civet, and mix them with your ball, till they be perfectly incorporated. Then make a ball or two of the lump, as ye shall think good, for the weight of the whole is about two ounces. Make a hole in your ball, and hang it by a lace.'
The musk-ball was evidently popular since a similar recipe 'A sweet and delicate pomander' is included in Sir Hugh Plat, Delightes for Ladies, 1609, under the heading 'Sweet Powders, ointments, beauties &c.'
The pomander was often hung by fashionable ladies from the girdle belt, alongside other accessories, such as a muff and mirror.
The ornament on the musk-ball is comparable to that of contemporary German and Flemish prints, particularly those of Theodor Bang and Theodor de Bry which were published from the late 16th century and influential on English goldsmiths' work, see A. Wells Cole, Art and Decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Influence of the Continental Prints, 1558-1624, Yale, 1997, p. 199. The rose, the emblem of the Tudor dynasty, was of course a device incorporated in the decoration of much 16th and early 17th century silver.
The musk-ball is described in Edmund Launert et. al., Perfume and Pomanders: Scent and Scent Bottles from the Scharzkopf Collection and European Museums, Thirsk, 1987, p. 17-19:
'In its simplest form it is a metal sphere which either has holes at top and bottom or all over the surface. There is an example in the Museum of London, the spherical body of which has holes in concentric rows; it is probably early 15th century in date... One may assume that since musk was weighed in against gold, the wealthy owners who owned pomanders spared no expense and commissioned the best goldsmiths of the day for these items.... All early pomanders have one common characteristic: they are never subdivided, since they held a single mass of solid aromatic material.'
Contemporary recipes details the composition of the musk ball. For example, John Partridge, The Treasury of Commodious Conceits and Hidden Secrets and May be Called the Housewife's Closet of Heathful Provision, London, 1573, which sold for 4 pence and was republished in 1600 describes:
To make a pomander, take Benjamin one ounce, of storar calamite half and ounce, of laudanum the eight part of an ounce. Beat them to powder and then put them into a brazen ladle with a little damask or rose water. Set them over fire or coals till they be dissolved and be soft like wax... when it is cold make it small, put to it your musk and civet. Then take your pome that you have chafed and gathered together, and by little and little (with some sweet water if need be) gather up the amber, musk and civet, and mix them with your ball, till they be perfectly incorporated. Then make a ball or two of the lump, as ye shall think good, for the weight of the whole is about two ounces. Make a hole in your ball, and hang it by a lace.'
The musk-ball was evidently popular since a similar recipe 'A sweet and delicate pomander' is included in Sir Hugh Plat, Delightes for Ladies, 1609, under the heading 'Sweet Powders, ointments, beauties &c.'
The pomander was often hung by fashionable ladies from the girdle belt, alongside other accessories, such as a muff and mirror.
The ornament on the musk-ball is comparable to that of contemporary German and Flemish prints, particularly those of Theodor Bang and Theodor de Bry which were published from the late 16th century and influential on English goldsmiths' work, see A. Wells Cole, Art and Decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Influence of the Continental Prints, 1558-1624, Yale, 1997, p. 199. The rose, the emblem of the Tudor dynasty, was of course a device incorporated in the decoration of much 16th and early 17th century silver.