German, late 17th-early 18th century, Tankard with a knight and wild animals. Photo Sotheby's
with an associated 18th century finial and inscribed in ink: 37/685 and with two old paper inventory labels, one inscribed in ink: 37/685, the other printed: SAMMLUNG * H.E.B. * and inscribed in ink: 79; the mounts with a Munich town mark and maker's mark MV, either for Michael Valser (active 1694-1707) or Michael Vogtner (active 1693-1712) (see Rosenberg, op. cit. no. 3850); ivory with silver-gilt mounts; overall: 26cm., 10¼in. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 GBP - LOT SOLD. 37,250 GBP
Provenance: Emma Budge, Hamburg;
her forced sale Berlin, Paul Graupe, Die Sammlung Frau Emma Budge, Hamburg, 27-29 September 1937, lot 231, pl. 56;
acquired by the Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich (inv. no. 37 / 685);
restituted to the heirs of Emma Budge in 2012
Note: This fine silver mounted ivory tankard is carved with scenes taken from Jan van der Straet's (1523-1605) hunting series entitled Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium, commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574) and subsequently engraved by Philipp Galle (1537-1612). The dramatic episode in which a knight thrusts a knife into a bear is taken directly from the Bear Hunt, whilst both the leaping lion and charging bull are close to their equivalents in the Fight among a Lion, Horse, Bull and Dogs (see Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 49.95.886; British Museum, inv. no. 1957,0413.237).
Philipp Galle's engravings were used by Johann Michael Maucher (1645-1701) as models for a number of his ivory reliefs. Maucher's ivory and deer horn charger in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. IN 4479) features a number of scenes taken from Galle's engravings of the Venationes Ferarum... Like the present tankard sleeve, the focus of the reliefs composing the Vienna charger are the hunted animals, which similarly spring and charge across each of the scenes. The present tankard finds a close parallel in a tankard sleeve in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (inv. no. Schatzk. H43) featuring a lion and bull in the same compositional arrangement. Note the very similar willow-type trees in the background, which can also be found in a number of Galle's engravings.
RELATED LITERATURE: A. Ehmer, Die Maucher. Eine Kunsthandwerkerfamilie des 17. Jahrhunderts aus Schwäbisch Gmünd, Schwäbisch Gmünd, 1992, pp. 194-9, no. C II 5, figs. 128-34; R. Berliner, Die Bildwerke in Elfenbein, Knochen, Hirsch- und Steinbockhorn mit einem Anhange: elfenbeinarbeiten der staatlichen schlossmuseen in Bayern, cat. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, 1926, pp. 146, 317, p. 146, no. 872; M. Rosenberg, Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen, Hofheim am Taunus, 1922 vol. ii, pp. 317, 335, no. 3518
Sotheby's. European Sculpture & Works of Art: Medieval to Modern . London | 03 Jul 2012 - www.sothebys.com