Jim Peake
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A Private Belgian Collection
Lot 26*
The Mechelen Glass: A remarkable engraved façon de Venise baluster goblet, dated 1687
27 November 2024, 10:30 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £20,480 inc. premium
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The Mechelen Glass: A remarkable engraved façon de Venise baluster goblet, dated 1687
The generous round funnel bowl engraved in diamond-point with a view of St Rumbold's Cathedral, flames emerging from the sides of the tower, fanned by a 'man in the moon' blowing fire, three 'Owls of Mechelen' wearing wide-brimmed hats perched upon the roof, a large owl in flight above carrying a tablet inscribed 'FIAT' (Let it come to pass), two panicked figures ascending the steps of the tower including one brandishing a cross, beneath the inscription 'Dear valt de groote Clock' (There falls the great clock), a crowned figure seated on a throne beside his companion and a tree, two men and two owls perched within its branches, a further figure with a bucket seated beneath a tree with a squirrel perched in its branches and the inscription 'brant Stultorum plena' (They are full of fools), three further owls in flight in the starry night sky above, the rim inscribed 'De Mechelers, hebben hun bestaen, Te Blussen De Maen, geschiet in het ider ons heeren 1687:' (The people of Mechelen, have their existence, to extinguish the moon, in the year of our Lord 1687) in Dutch, the stem with a wide teared inverted baluster set between double-collars, the folded conical foot inscribed 'VIVE LA/ belle Vigilance' (Long live beautiful vigilance) on top, the underside with a butterfly and a bird in flight above a stylised basket of flowers and the French inscription 'Une faveur De Consequence Merite de la Recognoissance' (A favour of consequence deserves recognition) within a tied laurel cartouche, 16.6cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Private Collection, Belgium
On the frosty Winter's night of 27 January 1687, St Rumbold's Tower in the city of Mechelen, Belgium, was shrouded in a hanging mist. An inebriated reveller emerging from an inn on the Grote Markt raised the alarm of fire upon seeing the misty reddish glow of flames around the tower. The city was thrown into confusion. With the alarm bell sounded the city council quickly organised the firefighting operation, led by the mayor. Buckets of water were passed from hand to hand in a human chain up the tower stairway, but before the courageous citizens of Mechelen could reach the top the haze slipped away and the illusion vanished. The people of Mechelen attempted to keep the incident quiet but the news of their foolishness spread, earning them the nickname Maneblussers (Moon Extinguishers), which they still bear to this day.
In all likelihood the story is likely to have been fabricated as part of a Catholic 'battle of symbols' between Jesuits and heretical Mechelen Jansenists and the incident probably never took place, but the frenzied scene on the present lot depicts the legend. It is likely that the panicked figure with a cross ascending the steps of the tower represents Archbishop Alphonsus de Berghes. The other may be the mayor, Franciscus Cosmus Van Wachtendonck. The dressed-up owls are emblematic of fools, and a drawing showing the 'owls' of Mechelen ascending the tower in an attempt to extinguish the fire can be found in the Mechelen City Archives (inv. no.A6852). The present goblet is particularly remarkable in that it is inscribed in three different languages - Latin, Dutch and French. A beaker engraved in diamond-point with a very similar scene is illustrated by Janette Lefrancq, L'Art Vetraire de Jean Bonhomme (2024), p.54, fig.24.