An Augsburg silver gilt rosewater bowl for the von Preysing counts

An Augsburg silver gilt rosewater bowl for the von Preysing counts

A large, shaped dish with a moulded rim. With Régence bird and trophy decor beneath canopies and eight relief medallions to the centre. The raised platform in the centre originally held the pitcher, now lost, decorated with a finely chased relief of Neptune and Amphitrite amid hyppocamps and nereids. Beneath which the engraved coat-of-arms of the counts of Preysing with the cross of the Bavarian Royal Order of Saint George. Diameter 61.5 cm, weight 3,150 g.
Maker's marks of Johann Erhard II Heuglin, 1724 - 28.

The medallions to the centre are finely chased with allegorical figures, the larger ones representing the four elements. Fire is represented by Zeus sitting on a cloud with an eagle and bundle of lightning bolts at his feet; earth by the recumbent Diana with two putti; water by Venus riding on a dolphin, and air by Psyche seated on a cloud scattering flowers onto the earth below. The four small medallions depict putti as the four continents: Europe is depicted on horseback in a park landscape; Asia riding a lion and carrying a parasol; Africa resting in the shadow of a camel, and America as a Native American before his hut.

Provenance

Formerly Emil M. Huennebeck Collection, Rhineland.

Literature

Illus. in: Seling 1980, no. 849. Cf. a lavabo garniture in the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden, illus. in cat.: Silber und Gold, Augsburger Goldschmiedekunst für die Höfe Europas, Munich 1994, no. 134. Cf. an almost identical, slightly smaller piece by Gottlieb Menzel in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, illus. in cat.: European Silver, London 1986, no. 70.

Exhibitions

Barockes Silber aus Rheinischen Sammlungen, Suermondt-Museum, Aachen, September - November 1964, no. 28, illus. 1 - 6, and on the title page; Ein rheinischer Silberschatz, Schmuck und Gerät aus Privatbesitz, Cologne, May - July 1980, no. 71.