NETHERLANDISH OR GERMAN, SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

In terms of style the present cup and cover relates to the type of decorative vases being carved, albeit in stone and on a larger scale, by the likes of Jan Pieter Van Baurscheit the elder and Jan van Logteren in the first half of the 18th century. The former's vases depicting Jupiter and Callisto and Apollo and Daphne and the latter's vase of Venus, Vulcan, Apollo and Daphne (all housed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and illustrated in Leeuwenberg, loc. cit.) have a very similar attention to the rich ornamentation throughout. This aspect is also visible on the wood throne by Pieter Scheemaekers the Elder who incorporates into his rich decorative scheme putti similar to those on the cup and cover offered here (ibid., no. 349). The 18th century dating is also corroborated by the fact that the silver-gilt liner of the cup and cover is stamped with the marks of the Frankfurt-based silversmith Johann Peter Beyer (fl. 1729-84) and the fact that the fitted leather case appears to be 18th century in date. The attribution of the ivory cup and cover to a rococo Netherlandish school is not necessarily inconsistent with the fact that the liner is stamped by a German silversmith, as it is always possible that the present liner is a replacement.