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Lot Essay
The male figure is closely modelled on the Belvedere Antinous, now in the Vatican Museums in Rome. During the 17th and 18th centuries the Antinous was so popular with connoisseurs that multiple versions of it were made in many media from drawings by Bernini, Poussin and others to bronzes and marbles. In about 1633 Hubert Le Sueur made a life-size bronze for King Charles I for Greenwich Palace which now stands in the gardens of Windsor Castle, and a marble version by Lacroix and a bronze from the Kellers were acquired by Louis XIV for the gardens at Versailles.
The Venus figure is after the antique marble Venus De'Medici, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which is also thought to be the reference for the pose of Venus in Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus, 1485.
The Biller family were some of the most prolific furniture and silver-makers in Augsburg. The patriarch of the family, Lorenz (fl c. 1664-1685), established his name by supplying Emperor Leopold I with silver, including a centrepiece sent as an ambassadorial gift to the Tzar. His sons Johann Ludwig I (1656-1732), Albrecht (1653-1720) and Lorenz II (fl c. 1678-1726) and his grandsons Johann Ludwig II (1696-1746) and Johannes (1692-1746) were all important makers.
Various members of the Biller family supplied elements of the great silver-gilt buffet in the Berlin Schloss. In Dresden there survive four gueridons by Johann Ludwig and the superb firescreen made by Albrecht and his brother Lorenz around 1710, repoussé and chased with decorative elements.
Albrecht Biller became a master in 1681. In 1703 he published a series of engravings of designs for ornament which were republished in 1716. His skill as a chaser and embosser was noted in the 18th century by Paul von Stetten who makes specific mention of Biller's 'artful Gueridons, large mirrors, tables and the like' (Gewerbnd Handwerks-Geshichte der Reichs-Stadt, Augsburg 1779-1788 quoted by Lucy Morton, Silver at Partridge, Recent Acquisitions, November 1998, pp.12-14 cat. no.6).
A magnificent silver wall-mirror by Albrecht Biller was offered Christie's, London, 17 March 1999, lot 114 and subsequently returned to Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, where it was originally displayed. Other recorded furniture by Albrecht include a pair of tables for the Residenz in Munich, and a second pair of silver-gilt tables made for Augustus the Strong in Dresden in 1719. In the same category fall the set of seven furnishing vases and covers now in the Kassel Staatliche Museum (L. Selig, Silber und Gold, op. cit., pp.483-485 cat. no.136 and pp.348-353 cat. no.82, respectively).
The Biller family's surviving work is testament to the artistic ability and technical skill of their workshop in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and demonstrates the firm's importance in supplying the leading families of Europe with silver with which to display their princely magnificence.
The Venus figure is after the antique marble Venus De'Medici, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which is also thought to be the reference for the pose of Venus in Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus, 1485.
The Biller family were some of the most prolific furniture and silver-makers in Augsburg. The patriarch of the family, Lorenz (fl c. 1664-1685), established his name by supplying Emperor Leopold I with silver, including a centrepiece sent as an ambassadorial gift to the Tzar. His sons Johann Ludwig I (1656-1732), Albrecht (1653-1720) and Lorenz II (fl c. 1678-1726) and his grandsons Johann Ludwig II (1696-1746) and Johannes (1692-1746) were all important makers.
Various members of the Biller family supplied elements of the great silver-gilt buffet in the Berlin Schloss. In Dresden there survive four gueridons by Johann Ludwig and the superb firescreen made by Albrecht and his brother Lorenz around 1710, repoussé and chased with decorative elements.
Albrecht Biller became a master in 1681. In 1703 he published a series of engravings of designs for ornament which were republished in 1716. His skill as a chaser and embosser was noted in the 18th century by Paul von Stetten who makes specific mention of Biller's 'artful Gueridons, large mirrors, tables and the like' (Gewerbnd Handwerks-Geshichte der Reichs-Stadt, Augsburg 1779-1788 quoted by Lucy Morton, Silver at Partridge, Recent Acquisitions, November 1998, pp.12-14 cat. no.6).
A magnificent silver wall-mirror by Albrecht Biller was offered Christie's, London, 17 March 1999, lot 114 and subsequently returned to Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, where it was originally displayed. Other recorded furniture by Albrecht include a pair of tables for the Residenz in Munich, and a second pair of silver-gilt tables made for Augustus the Strong in Dresden in 1719. In the same category fall the set of seven furnishing vases and covers now in the Kassel Staatliche Museum (L. Selig, Silber und Gold, op. cit., pp.483-485 cat. no.136 and pp.348-353 cat. no.82, respectively).
The Biller family's surviving work is testament to the artistic ability and technical skill of their workshop in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and demonstrates the firm's importance in supplying the leading families of Europe with silver with which to display their princely magnificence.