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Lot Essay
This belongs to a famous armour-garniture made for Archduke Maximilian (Emperor 1564-76), described in the 1990 catalogue of the Leibrstkammer, Vienna (inv. no. A 610 etc.), where the greater part of it still remains, as 'belonging to the most beautiful of the works of the mid-16th Century armourers and etchers'. The armourer Matthus Frauenpreisz the Elder of Augsburg, from whom it was ordered, probably in 1548, completed his work on it shortly before his death in October 1549, but the decorator, the celebrated etcher Jrg Sorg the Younger continued to work on it into 1550: part of the garniture is illustrated in his surviving pattern-book in the Wrtemburgischer Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart under that date. The Bohemian royal arms appear on the escutcheon because Maximilian was elected King of Bohemia in 1549, though he did not succeed until the death of his father, the Emperor Ferdinand I, in 1564.
Matthus Frauenpreisz the Elder (c. 1505-1549) is first recorded in Augsburg in 1529, when he married the widow of the armourer Briccius Helmschmied. He was awarded a coat-of-arms by the Emperor Charles V in 1543, became Master of the Augsburg Smiths' guild in 1547, and died on 22 October 1549. Surviving work by him, in addition to the Knigsgarnitur, includes two shields in the Real Armera, Madrid (inv. nos. D 68 and M 6), made respectively for Philip II of Spain before his accession to the throne and King Francis I of France (d. 1547), the former signed in full and dated 1543, and an armour for a man and horse, dated 1548, made for the Elector Moritz of Saxony, in the Historisches Museum, Dresden (inv. no. G 39). Jrg Sorg the Younger's album also includes, in addition to the foot-combat armour for the Knigsgarnitur (folio 4v.), seven other armours by him, all on drawings dated 1549, of which six form two garnitures (folios 3, 3v., 4, 5, 5v., 6, 6v.).
Jrg Sorg the Younger (d. 1603), the son of the similarly-named official painter to the city of Augsburg, was born in circa 1522 to his father's second wife, Catharina, daughter of the famous imperial armourer, Koloman Helmschmied. Trained as a painter by his father, many archival references to him are recorded from 1548 onwards, some relating to armourers, and including one in a letter of 1559 in which he is described as 'painter and etcher on armour'. There can be no serious doubt, therefore, that he was the author of the famous pattern-book in the Wrtemburgischer Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, containing drawings of 84 armours and parts which the unnamed author recorded he had decorated with etching between 1548 and 1563 for various armourers, those named being all from Augsburg. Parts of a few of these survive in various collections.
Matthus Frauenpreisz the Elder (c. 1505-1549) is first recorded in Augsburg in 1529, when he married the widow of the armourer Briccius Helmschmied. He was awarded a coat-of-arms by the Emperor Charles V in 1543, became Master of the Augsburg Smiths' guild in 1547, and died on 22 October 1549. Surviving work by him, in addition to the Knigsgarnitur, includes two shields in the Real Armera, Madrid (inv. nos. D 68 and M 6), made respectively for Philip II of Spain before his accession to the throne and King Francis I of France (d. 1547), the former signed in full and dated 1543, and an armour for a man and horse, dated 1548, made for the Elector Moritz of Saxony, in the Historisches Museum, Dresden (inv. no. G 39). Jrg Sorg the Younger's album also includes, in addition to the foot-combat armour for the Knigsgarnitur (folio 4v.), seven other armours by him, all on drawings dated 1549, of which six form two garnitures (folios 3, 3v., 4, 5, 5v., 6, 6v.).
Jrg Sorg the Younger (d. 1603), the son of the similarly-named official painter to the city of Augsburg, was born in circa 1522 to his father's second wife, Catharina, daughter of the famous imperial armourer, Koloman Helmschmied. Trained as a painter by his father, many archival references to him are recorded from 1548 onwards, some relating to armourers, and including one in a letter of 1559 in which he is described as 'painter and etcher on armour'. There can be no serious doubt, therefore, that he was the author of the famous pattern-book in the Wrtemburgischer Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, containing drawings of 84 armours and parts which the unnamed author recorded he had decorated with etching between 1548 and 1563 for various armourers, those named being all from Augsburg. Parts of a few of these survive in various collections.