The Dessau Goblet: A magnificent Silesian engraved Hochschnitt goblet and cover by Friedrich Winter, Hermsdorf, circa 1700
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The Dessau Goblet: A magnificent Silesian engraved Hochschnitt goblet and cover by Friedrich Winter, Hermsdorf, circa 1700
The flared bowl in the form of a cornucopia with a three-dimensional basal volute, decorated in Hochschnitt on a polished ground with symmetrical acanthus sprays inhabited by birds and foxes or bears, set on a basal collar cut with stiff leaves over a large boss embellished with further acanthus leaves on a columnar section terminating in a faceted collar and wide conical foot cut on both the upper and under surfaces with leaf and petal motifs, the low-cut cover similarly cut, with spire finial embellished with stiff leaves, 28cm high (2)
Sold for £277,250 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • Provenance:
    Formerly at Schloss Dessau
    Anon. Sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 27 - 29 February 1936, lot 547
    The Beck Collection, sold at Sotheby's, 23 November 1964, lot 10
    The Helfried Krug Collection, Baden-Baden, sold at Sotheby's, 7 July 1981, lot 202
    With Heide Hübner, Würzburg, 1983

    Exhibited:
    Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf 1968, 'Meisterwerke der Glaskunst aus internationalem Privatbesitz', no.193

    Literature:
    Robert Schmidt, Das Glas, (1922), p.264
    Corning Museum, Journal of Glass Studies Vol.VII (1965), p.127, fig.31
    Gustav Weiss, Gläserbuch (1966), p.200
    Brigitte Klesse, Glassammlung Helfried Krug, part I (1965), p.208, fig.204
    Dietmar Zoedler, Schlesisches Glas (1996), p.57
    Rudolf von Strasser, Licht und Farbe. Die Sammlung von Rudolf von Strasser (2002), pp.265-266, pl.35

    An almost identical example but lacking its cover can be found in the Museum of Applied Arts, Berlin, dated to circa 1695 (illustrated by Dietmar Zoedler, op.cit (1996), p.56, fig.4). Compare also with a very similar goblet in the Museum of Decorative Art, Prague and in the Ruhmann Collection, Vienna (see F.X.Jirik, Führer, p.101ff, no.7; J.Vavra, 5000 Years of Glass-making (1954), pl.76, no.187, pl.77, no.190; Ignaz Schlosser, Das Alte Glas (1956), p.134, fig.103). See also the example from the Otto Dettmers Collection, sold at Sotheby's, 23 November 1999, lot 57.

    Friedrich Winter was granted a special privilege or patent by Count Christian von Schaffgotsch in 1687 to set up a water-powered cutting works. From his workshop came a series of some of the finest goblets in the Baroque taste, expressing in glass the connoisseur and collectors' delight in objects fashioned from rock crystal.

    Although unrecorded, it has long been considered that the present lot comes from either the Residenzschloss Dessau, the home of the Fürsten and Herzöge von Anhalt-Dessau, or from Schloss Oranienbaum, the property of Henriette Catharina von Oranien-Nassau, wife of Johann Georg II von Anhalt-Dessau. She established a Glashütte in 1673. Leopold I, Fürst von Anhalt-Dessau (1676-1747) (known as "The Old Dessauer") was a very popular Prussian General.

Category: Decorative Arts / Glass

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