A GERMAN SILVER-GILT RENAISSANCE BASIN

Description:

Augsburg, circa 1600-1610
47,5 x 36,5 cm
Apparently no maker's mark, oval, the central depression embossed with four roundels depicting Venus and Adonis, Venus and Cupid, Cupid, and Ganymede, centred by a later fitted armorial shield, within scrolling strapwork and foliage on matting, the broad border similarly decorated alternating with landscapes, the reverse engraved N-3, 1729gr. The maker's mark has been obliterated by one fitting for the armorial shield. Minute, age-related wear of gilding
Important private collection Rhineland, with Sotheby's Geneva, 18.5.1992, Lot 96
The roundel depicting Venus and Cupid is after a plaque by Antonio Abondino the medallist and wax modeller who died in Vienna in 1591. Lit.: Ingrid Weber Deutsche Niederländische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten 1500-1650, Munich, 1975, no. 646.3, pl. 175 and 663
The arms are probably those of Barons von Satzenhofen auf Fuchsberg und Rothenstadt, of Bavaria - see a copper engraving by Tyroff in "Wappenburg des gesammten Adels des Königreichs Bayern" ca. 1820