Lot 25

AUGSBURG - THE EPICENTRE OF GERMAN SILVER MANUFACTURE Augsburg was at the heart of German silver production from the 16th to the 19th Century. Work by Augsburg silversmiths was renowned for its excellence. Even when stylistic taste shifted towards France, Augsburg silver remained sought-after by the Royal courts of Europe and Russia. Silver played an important role in the economic growth of Augsburg, but it was the exceptional art of the Augsburg goldsmith that was crucial in forming the city’s cultural reputation. The boom in silver and copper mining in Tyrol during the reign of Emperor Maximilian I was the catalyst for a massive growth in the city's wealth. Merchant families built prominent town residences and almshouses as well as establishing guilds. In addition to supporting the economy, the guilds were a major factor in the cultural growth of the city and goldsmiths emerged as the city’s most important group of craftsmen; the goldsmiths’ chapel, constructed in 1485, served as a tangible statement of the power and influence of the guild. By 1420 the guild had introduced the pinecone mark as a means of control and it remains in use today as the town mark of Augsburg. The prevailing reputation of the Augsburg guild attracted masters and specialised silversmiths. Extensive local mining provided ready raw materials and the emerging merchant class provided demand. These converging factors created a lush environment in which the most gifted goldsmiths and silversmiths were able to thrive. Growing steadily from the mid-16th Century, Augsburg became the leading centre for goldsmiths’ work by the mid-17th Century. The city’s reputation stretched through the Régence and Rococo periods with Augsburg-designed silver remaining as the leading influence on the taste and style of German silver throughout. At the same time, Augsburg was also steadily becoming a centre for printing and book production. This melting pot of fine metalwork and printed material gave Augsburg goldsmiths exposure to the latest designs from across Europe. The members of the Drentwett family moved between the two disciplines, publishing engravings in the baroque style. Balduin Drentwett was the first member of his family to become a goldsmith, with twenty-six members of his family following in his footsteps, spanning a period of about 200 years (see lots 57, 58, 63 & 68). In the first half of the 18th Century, mechanized cloth production gave a further boost to the city’s economy. In the latter half of the century Augsburg's economy was yet further bolstered as the city became a centre for trade and banking with the economy continuing to grow, although, its cultural influence had by now started to wane. During the late 18th Century, the dominance of the French court style meant that Paris began to overshadow Augsburg as a centre for design, although it continued to be known for its superlative craftsmanship. French Neoclassicism strongly influenced the designs for silver produced by Augsburg silversmiths during this time, as demonstrated by the magnificent Perm service commissioned by Catherine the Great, Czarina of Russia (see lots 100 and 101). Augsburg silversmiths continued to produce works of exceptional quality and enjoyed persistent demand from the courts of Europe, mainly in the form of extensive dinner services, but now predominantly in a distinctly French style.

A PAIR OF GERMAN SILVER STANDING FIGURES

MARK OF PHILIPP KUSEL, AUGSBURG, CIRCA 1690

Details

A PAIR OF GERMAN SILVER STANDING FIGURES
MARK OF PHILIPP KUSEL, AUGSBURG, CIRCA 1690
Each on oval base with foliage heightened gadrooned borders, chased to simulate a rocky landscape, one formed as Hercules slaying the Lernaean Hydra (after the model by Adriaen de Vries), his club raised and his body draped in a robe, the other depicting the Rape of the Sabines, each with flat back, the second engraved with a coat-of-arms below a coronet, each marked twice on base, the first further marked on robe
24 3/8 in. (62 cm.) high and smaller

Provenance

Hercules slaying the Lernaean Hydra:
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Geneva, 16 May 1994, lot 161.

The Rape of the Sabines:
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Geneva, 22 October 1993, lot 188 (as gilt and depicting Pluto carrying off Proserpine).

Brought to you by

Adrian Hume-Sayer

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

ahume-sayer@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2696

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

The present lot exemplifies the importance of Augsburg as a centre of culture in the 16th and 17th Centuries, as well as the dialogue between silversmiths, the city and print sources. In the summer of 1596, the City of Augsburg commissioned the renowned sculptor Adriaen de Vries (1556-1626) to design two fountains, these were modelled as Mercury and Hercules and the Hydra. During his time in Augsburg, de Vries worked with the metal founder Wolfgang Neidhart (1576-1632) to cast major commissions as well as the fountains. In the introduction to the exhibition catalogue, Adriaen de Vries, Imperial Sculptor (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1998), Frits Scholten states that the fountains were ‘utterly new in their form and conception’ (p. 20). The dynamic and narrative designs were influenced by Italy, and ‘contributed a great deal to the prestige of Augsburg’ (ibid., p. 21). Craftsmen and goldsmiths from courts across Europe were dispatched to Augsburg to see his masterpiecees. The prints later published by Jan Muller, after de Vries’s works, added to their notoriety. It is therefore no surprise that Augsburg maker Philipp Küsel appropriated the popular Hercules and the Hydra design for his work in silver. A comparable example by Albecht Biller, Augsburg, 1700, is in the Maximilianmuseum, Augsburg.

More from From Roentgen to Faberge: A European Private Collection

View All