Lot 28. A reverse-painted glass picture by Nikolaus Michael Spengler, signed and dated 1764. Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 (€3,300 - 5,600). Photo Bonhams.
Of upright rectangular form and depicting The Alchemist after David Teniers the Younger, seated in a busy workshop and using a pair of bellows to blow air onto a fire which heats a distiller, other apparatus and his notebook spread around him, more figures in the background, one using a mortar and pestle, signed with monogram and dated 1764, wooden frame, 35.4cm x 27.6cm visible image
Provenance: From the estate of a Swiss Collector
Note: Nikolaus Michael Spengler (1700-1776) was among the most accomplished reverse-glass painters of his age. He learnt the technique at Konstanz and his earliest dated work is from 1727, around the time he settled in Darmstadt where he also served as Court painter to Counts Ernst Ludwig (1678–1739) and Ludwig VIII (1739–1768) of Hesse-Kassel. A typical tavern interior by Spengler, also after Teniers, is in the Corning Museum of Glass, no.2011.3.114. See also the Ryser Collection Catalogue, Reverse Paintings on Glass, nos.59-61.
Bonhams. BRITISH AND EUROPEAN CERAMICS AND GLASS, LONDON, KNIGHTSBRIDGE