Lot Essay
The attribution was first proposed by Walther Bernt, and has been confirmed by Fred Meijer of the RKD, The Hague. Whilst Bernt suggested that the picture is an early work, dating it from around 1645, Meijer has suggested that it is closer to 1649, noting that a similar work, dated 1649, is now in the Prinsenhof Museum, Delft (formerly in the collection of Professor Einar Perman, Stockholm; see I. Bergstrom, Dutch Still-Life painting in the 17th Century, New York, 1983, p. 218, fig. 183, incorrectly recorded as dated 1646).