SOUTH GERMAN, PROBABLY AUGSBURG, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A SILVER FIGURE OF A BIRDCATCHER
SOUTH GERMAN, PROBABLY AUGSBURG, EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Depicted holding a racket and lantern and standing astride two dead birds on the integrally cast naturalistic base; engraved to the top of the hat with the letters 'AG' and with an Austrian import mark of the early 20th century on his right buttock
11 3/8 in. (29 cm.) high

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Edinburgh, London and Vienna, Royal Scottish Museum, Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, Giambologna (1529-1608) - Sculptor to the Medici, 19 August 1978 - 28 January 1979, nos. 133 and 134, pp. 160-163.
C. Avery, Giambologna - The Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, no. 113, p. 267.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This beautifully finished silver figure takes its inspiration from a model by the Medicean court sculptor Giambologna (1529-1608). A birdcatcher is included in a 1611 list of autograph compositions by the latter, and an example was among the bronzes sent by the Medici to Henry Prince of Wales in that year (Giambologna - Sculptor to the Medici, op. cit., p. 160). That figure depicts the birdcatcher with a racket or stick in his lowered right hand and a lantern held aloft in his left. The present figure, and other known examples similar to it, is therefore a mirror image of the Giambologna model, and it has been suggested that these figures were created independently by northern artists as a pendant to the original composition (ibid, p. 163, no. 134). This figure is particularly richly finished, with a wealth of detail in the contemporary costume and a silversmith's attention to the chiselling and punching.

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