MAKER'S MARK OF ANDREAS BESTREICH, NUREMBERG, CIRCA 1570

Details

A GERMAN SILVER-GILT DOUBLE CUP (doppelpokal)
Maker's mark of Andreas Bestreich, Nuremberg, circa 1570
Each on stepped domed foot with plain border and acid-etched band of scrolling foliate moresques in the style of Virgil Solis, the centre repoussé and chased with band of fruit, the vase-shaped stem rising from plinth chased with lobes and with applied animal mask scroll brackets and chased with grotesque masks and festoons, the lower part of the bowl chased with band of fruit with stipple-work between, the upper part with lobed panels repoussé with tied fruit and foliage on matted ground, with applied cast portrait busts of a queen and two bearded monarchs at intervals, with further stipple-work between, the border acid-etched with scrolling foliate moresques, marked on each base and bowl and also struck with early-nineteenth-century Austrian control marks
17½ in. (44.5 cm.) high overall
each cup 9 in. (23 cm.) high
Weight 41 oz. (1,273 gr.) (2)

Provenance

Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt. (1850-1912), Bath House, London, by whom bequeathed, with a life interest to his widow, Alice, Lady Wernher, subsequently Lady Ludlow (1862-1945), to their son
Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt., G.C.V.O. (1893-1973), Bath House, London, and from 1948, Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, and by descent.

Literature

1913 Bath House Inventory, p. 131, no. 654, in the safe.
1914 Wernher Inventory, p. 88, no. 438.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Andreas Bestreich, master in 1560, is recorded by Rosenberg (op. cit., III, no. 3944) as delivering twelve drinking vessels to the Nuremberg Rathaus between 1561 and 1584. A cup by him is in the collection of the Armoury, Moscow.

The basic form of this double cup is derived from late Gothic cups (see lot 50). The Nuremberg makers, Wenzel Jamnitzer in 1564 and Hans Petzolt, circa 1590 both made cups much closer to the Gothic prototype (C. Hernmarck, The Art of the European Silversmith, 1430-1830, London, 1977, pp. 46-47, figs. 118 and 121). The single cup by Paulus Flindt the Elder, circa 1565 (see lot 43) and a double cup of 1575 by Elias Lencker, also of Nuremberg, demonstrate the combination of late Gothic form and Renaissance ornament found on the present cup (J. Hayward, Virtuoso Goldsmiths, 1540-1620, London, 1976, pl. 489).

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