A museum quality Frankfurt faience jug
A museum quality Frankfurt faience jug
Decorated with a knotted drapery set with three large fruit and flower still lifes backed by slender tendrils. The neck and lower base of the handle with further tendril motifs and various insectss. The hinged cover with an engraved cuff and repoussé basal ring of gilt silver. Smoothed unmarked base. Yellowed retouches over a round crack to the glaze of the rim. The base ground down to fit the silver mountings. H with thumb rest 26.3 cm.
Period of Johann Christian Fehr, 1666 - 1693, vermeil mount of the base Nuremberg, Jacob Pfaff.
Regardless of who the creator of this magnificent painting may have been, there are very few pieces of comparable quality and none published that document Frankfurt production at this level at the end of the 17th century. The abundance of flowers and fruit, presented on a drapery with three knots, is as impressive as the artist's ability to create fine nuances and shades in just one colour. In contrast to all other known Frankfurt jugs from the workshop of Christian Fehr, which Adolf Feulner identified in 1935, here, in addition to the floral motifs, there are numerous, extremely finely painted insects buzzing around the still life on all sides.
The mounting of the foot was created by the Nuremberg silversmith Jacob Pfaff, who was active between 1675 and 1708. He was inspired by the fine, feathery leaf tendrils and large flowers of the painted decor and created a similar ornament in relief for the rim of the foot. A narrow-necked jug painted by Abraham Helmhack in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 1991.207.2) shows a much simpler mounting by his hand, which in turn perfectly complements the shape of the vessel.
Provenance
Collection of Helmut Spieß.
Acquired from Peter Vogt in Munich, 2014.
Private collection, Hesse.
Literature
Cf. Feulner, Frankfurter Fayencen, Berlin 1935, fig. 148 f.
Cf. Bauer, Frankfurter Fayencen aus der Zeit des Barock, Frankfurt 1988, cat. no. 11, for a jug painted with a similar tendril and bands from the Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt collection, inv. no. Ke 737, also with purple signature "F".
Cf. Brattig/Hesse (eds.), Der schöne Schein, Heidelberg-Berlin-Cologne 2013, cat. no. 19, a Hanau faience jug with the same decoration in the Museum of Applied Arts Cologne collection, inv. no. E 2726 cl.
Cf. the decoration by Abraham Helmhack on the Hanau jug in the Victoria & Albert Museum London Collection, acc. no. C.199-1923.
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A museum quality Frankfurt faience jug
Decorated with a knotted drapery set with three large fruit and flower still lifes backed by slender tendrils. The neck and lower base of the handle with further tendril motifs and various insectss. The hinged cover with an engraved cuff and repoussé basal ring of gilt silver. Smoothed unmarked base. Yellowed retouches over a round crack to the glaze of the rim. The base ground down to fit the silver mountings. H with thumb rest 26.3 cm.
Period of Johann Christian Fehr, 1666 - 1693, vermeil mount of the base Nuremberg, Jacob Pfaff.
Regardless of who the creator of this magnificent painting may have been, there are very few pieces of comparable quality and none published that document Frankfurt production at this level at the end of the 17th century. The abundance of flowers and fruit, presented on a drapery with three knots, is as impressive as the artist's ability to create fine nuances and shades in just one colour. In contrast to all other known Frankfurt jugs from the workshop of Christian Fehr, which Adolf Feulner identified in 1935, here, in addition to the floral motifs, there are numerous, extremely finely painted insects buzzing around the still life on all sides.
The mounting of the foot was created by the Nuremberg silversmith Jacob Pfaff, who was active between 1675 and 1708. He was inspired by the fine, feathery leaf tendrils and large flowers of the painted decor and created a similar ornament in relief for the rim of the foot. A narrow-necked jug painted by Abraham Helmhack in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 1991.207.2) shows a much simpler mounting by his hand, which in turn perfectly complements the shape of the vessel.
Provenance
Collection of Helmut Spieß.
Acquired from Peter Vogt in Munich, 2014.
Private collection, Hesse.
Literature
Cf. Feulner, Frankfurter Fayencen, Berlin 1935, fig. 148 f.
Cf. Bauer, Frankfurter Fayencen aus der Zeit des Barock, Frankfurt 1988, cat. no. 11, for a jug painted with a similar tendril and bands from the Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt collection, inv. no. Ke 737, also with purple signature "F".
Cf. Brattig/Hesse (eds.), Der schöne Schein, Heidelberg-Berlin-Cologne 2013, cat. no. 19, a Hanau faience jug with the same decoration in the Museum of Applied Arts Cologne collection, inv. no. E 2726 cl.
Cf. the decoration by Abraham Helmhack on the Hanau jug in the Victoria & Albert Museum London Collection, acc. no. C.199-1923.
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Time, Location
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