A lemon, grapes and plums on a tazza, with oranges, grapes and a hazelnut with a snail and a butterfly at a feigned sculpted stone niche

To be compared with the signed picture, on copper, 71 x 54.5 cm, formerly with Roelofsz, Amsterdam, 1993/9 (Masters of Middelburg, exhibition catalogue, Waterman Amsterdam, 1984, p.196, no.40, ill.), where a similar tazza and sculpted niche are depicted. The motif of a sculpted niche occurs frequently in still life painting of the 17th Century, most notably in the work of Jan Davidsz. de Heem (Garland of fruit, ears of corn and flowers around a cartouche, signed and dated 1648 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; M.L. Hairs, The Flemish Flower Painters of the XVIIth Century, 1985, p.394, fig.138) and Daniel Seghers (Bouquets of flowers at niches, Escorial, Madrid; M.L. Hairs, op.cit., pp.140/1, figs.38/9).