Revellers visiting a house with a Twelfth Night lantern; and Elegant figures arriving at a ball

These drawings would have been executed as part of a series showing the twelve months with their associated celebrations and festivals, set against the backdrop of contemporary Amsterdam. In the present case, the Twelfth Night scene represents January: a comparable series by Jacobus Buys (1724-1801) was offered at Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 4 November 2003, lot 111. That group included a very similar composition for January, in which revellers dressed as the Three Magi progress from door to door with a star-shaped lantern collecting money. For representations of Twelfth Night by Cornelis Troost, see J.W. Niemeijer, Cornelis Troost 1696-1750, Assen, 1973, pp. 344-6, nos. 668T, 669T and 670T).

We thank Robert Jan te Rijdt for his help cataloguing this lot.