Pieter Claesz.

Purchased in Amsterdam by Michel van Gelder, 1914;
Smidt van Gelder, Brussels;
Private Collection, USA, 1955-1979;
With X. Scheidwimmer, Munich;
British American Tobacco Company Limited, London;
With Pokutta, Munich, 1989;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 7 July 1989, lot 46, where unsold;
With Douwes, London and Amsterdam, 1990;
With Clovis Whitfield, London;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Österreichischen Tabakmuseum, Die lasterhalfte Panazee: 500 Jahre Tabakkultur in Europa, 1992, no. 1/65;
Munich, Spessartmuseum, Glück und Glas: zur Kulturgeschichte des Spessartglases, 1994.

N.R.A. Vroom, A Modest Message as intimated by the painters of the the 'Monochrome Banketje', Schiedam and Nuremberg 1980, p. 28, reproduced no. 104;
Glück und Glas: zur Kulturgeschichte des Spessartglases, exhibition catalogue, Munich 1994, p. 39, reproduced;
D. Gage and M. Marsh, Tobacco Containers and Accessories: Their Place in Eighteenth Century European Social History, London 1988, p. 65, reproduced;
S. Fellner, W. Bauer, et al., in Die lasterhalfte Panazee: 500 Jahre Tabakkultur in Europa, Vienna 1992, p. 65, cat. no. 1/65, reproduced;
M. Brunner-Bulst, Pieter Claesz. der Hauptmeister des Haarlemer Stillebens im 17. Jahrhundert: Kritischer Oeuvrekatalog, Lingen 2004, p. 265, no. 105, reproduced.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is cradled, with a central vertical join, and it is in a good flat, stable condition. The vertical wood grain is pronounced, and there is evidence of a thinning of the paint layer to some of this, although the paint is secure. There is a small restored paint loss above the brazier, some restoration along the join and one or two restored pin-prick size losses elsewhere. Overall, the painting is in a good condition; the paint texture and impasto are well preserved and the image is crisp, the colours saturating satisfactorily; the glazes and more delicate passages are in an original state. The varnish is lightly discoloured and its removal would improve the tonality. Offered in an antique ebonised and gilt frame, with some worm damage."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This is one of a small group of still lifes painted by Claesz. in the early to mid-1640s in which the brazier, which is usually confined to a minor role in the background, is thrust into a dominant position at the very front of the composition. Typical of Claesz.'s works from this period is the creamy grey background and the upright format, to which he would seldom return from the late 1640s onwards. The simplicity and reposeful nature of this work is enhanced by the very apparent lack of the artist's usual props, and rarest of all is the absence of the ubiquitous roemer and flagon, one or both of which dominate all but few of Claesz.'s pictures. Here, Claesz. concentrates exclusively on smokers' implements, the glass of beer aside: the burning coals in the brazier, the pot of tobacco, the tobacco wrap, the tinderwood and the pipe.  All of the objects recur in other paintings by the artist; the beer glass, for example, in the upright panel from the same year in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Perhaps the most similar picture to the present work in terms of composition and subject matter is the artist's 1646 Still life with a brazier, pewter flagon and tall beer glass that sold in these Rooms, 6 December 2006, lot 12.