STYLE: Furniture, Silver, Clocks, Ceramics and Vertu
STYLE: Furniture, Silver, Clocks, Ceramics and Vertu
Private Collection of a Norfolk Family
A PARCEL-GILT SILVER-MOUNTED COCONUT CUP IN THE FORM OF AN OWL, UNMARKED, GERMAN, PROBABLY 16TH CENTURY
Lot Closed
September 9, 01:05 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Private Collection of a Norfolk Family
A PARCEL-GILT SILVER-MOUNTED COCONUT CUP IN THE FORM OF AN OWL, UNMARKED, GERMAN, PROBABLY 16TH CENTURY
detachable head, legs and tail embossed and chased to simulate feathers, bell, the neck mounted engraved with arabesques, coconut body fitted with stamped straps, the stylized wings delineated by applied wires with foliate rims
19.5cm., 7 ¾ in. high
ASSOCIATED LITERATURE
Karl-August Wirth, Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 1968, pp. 42-83
Rolf Fritz, Die Gefasse aus Kokonuss in Mitteleuropa 1250-1800, Mainz am Rhein, 1983, Tafel 39 (b)
Timothy Schroder, Renaissance Silver from the Schroder Collection, London, 2007, no. 39
Exhibition catalogue, Zilver uit de Gouden Eeuw van Antwerpen, Rockoxhuis, 10 November-15 January 1989, vol I, no. 32
This cup
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This cup is a new addition to the group of 6 very similar owl coconut cups, recorded by Karl-August Wirth in 1968 (Associated literature). Conforming in all other respects, the 6 already known, are additionally either inscribed fully, or partly inscribed, with the Latin VERBUM DOMINI MANET IN AETERNUM (The Word of the Lord endures forever) and the German verse ALS ALE FOEGELEN SIN TENIST SO IST MIN FLEGEN ANT ALER BIST (When all other birds are in their nest my flying is the best). Four of these are also dated 1556.
Karl August Wirth has ascribed this group to the area of Germany around Wesel based on the verse language and the existence of a Wesel-type town mark on the example in the Focke Museum, Bremen (Associated Literature. Fritz). The verse about flying best at night, is also found in varying forms on three other owl coconut cups; an example from Nijmegen, last quarter of the 16th century (Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen), and two Antwerp examples, one of which is hallmarked 1548/49 (Associated literature, Antwerp exhib). The verse in addition to its obvious meaning is interpreted by Wirth as a reference to the purpose of the cup, which is to drink alcohol. Drinking cups in the form of owls are known to have been given as shooting prizes, with real owls being used in their traditional role as lures for other birds who came to mob them, and which were then shot in the competition. The religious text acts as an antidote to the encouragement of drinking but is also well known as a motto of the Protestant Reformation, being first used by Luther’s ruling prince the Elector of Saxony, Frederick III (1486-1525), incorporated on his funeral monument, and widely used afterwards within the Protestant world.
The date of 1556 on four of the cups more likely refers to some important event, than the year they were made. Such a possible event might have been the arrival of the comet in 1556. Portentous like the owl, the comet which was very bright was widely seen over Germany and Austria, recorded and commented on in broadsheets and mapped by the Emperor’s astronomer in Vienna. It was believed to have predicted the death which occurred in 1556 of two of the Electors and the resignation in the same year of the Protestant scourge, Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor, after whom it was eventually named.