Case 1 (2012-13): A Dutch Silver ewer and basin by Christian van Vianen Expert Adviser’s Statement Reviewing Committee Secretary’s note: Please note that any illustrations referred to have not been reproduced on the Arts Council England Website EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Brief description of items A silver ewer and basin (see Appendix, fig. 1), the ewer 25.4 cm high; the basin 53.3 x 43 cm; their combined weight, 85 oz. Both ewer and basin marked with the maker’s mark of Christian van Vianen of Utrecht (c. 1600 / 1605 – 1667), and both pieces bearing the Utrecht assay office date mark for 1632. The condition of the ewer and basin is excellent: there are only a few small splits to the border of the basin. These are consistent with age and use. 2. Context Provenance Johan van der Haer (1573-1646) and Maria van Kinschot (1589- 1648) Johan van der Haer was a financial administrator of the Estates General, Maria was his wife. ? Johan van der Haer the younger and his descendants Johan and Maria’s son, also Johan, married at Zierikzee in 1632 and his descendants were related to several notable Zeeland families. The tax mark ‘Z’ for Zierikzee (in the Dutch province of Zeeland) shows that the ewer and basin remained in the Dutch provinces until 1795 at the earliest. Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843): sold at Christie’s, 22 June 1843, lot 78. Sir George Murray: sold at Christie’s, 24 July, 1891, lot 55. The Marquess of Sligo The Countess of Rosebery: sold at Sotheby’s, London, 2 June, 1977, lot 186 – listed as among ‘Various Properties’. British Railways Pension Fund His Excellency Mohammed Mahdi Al Tajir Exhibited On loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2000 – 2009 Christie’s, London: exhibition The Glory of the Goldsmith – Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection (January 1990) On loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1978 – 1989 The National Gallery, London, exhibition: Art in Seventeenth Century Holland (September – December 1976) Utrecht, Centraal Museum, exhibition: Zeldzaam Zilver uit de Gouden Eeuw: Utrechtse edelsmadan Van Vianen (December 1984 – February 1985) The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, exhibition: Vier eeuwen Nederlands zilver (July - September 1952) Key Publications J. R. ter Molen, Van Vianen: een Utrechtse familie van zilversmeden met een internationale faam, 2 vols (Leiderdorp: Gemeentedrukkerij Rotterdam, 1984) Ronald Lightbown, ‘Christian van Vianen at the Court of Charles I’, Apollo, LXXXVII (1968), 426-39 The Glory of the Goldsmith: Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, ed. by Charles Truman, catalogue of the exhibition held at Christie’s London, 3rd – 22nd January 1990 (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1989) 3. Waverley criteria The van Vianen ewer and basin meet Waverley criteria (2) – they are of outstanding aesthetic importance. The van Vianen ewer and basin meet Waverley criteria (3) – they are of outstanding significance to the study of the history and development of European decorative arts, the history of silversmithing, and the history of European royal patronage and collecting. Brief statement in support of this objection on the grounds of Waverley criteria 2 and 3 We submit that the innovative design of Christian van Vianen’s ewer and basin and the extraordinary skill with which they were executed mean they are of outstanding aesthetic importance. The influence of van Vianen’s works and the admiration they aroused are important elements in the study of taste, collecting and the decorative arts across Europe. DETAILED CASE 1. The objects A silver ewer and basin, made as a pair in Utrecht in 1632 by Christian van Vianen (c. 1600/1605 - 1667) (fig. 1). The ewer: The body of the ewer is raised from a single sheet of silver, with a hinged silver lid and applied hollow handle also of silver. The underside of the foot is applied with four strips of silver which are probably a later addition to enable the ewer to sit over the later coat of arms applied to the centre of the basin. The body of the vessel is asymmetric and defined by the ornamental figures and scroll-shapes that flow across its surface. The lid is embossed in the form of a fantastical sea-creature, its mouth the opening at the lip of the body of the vessel. The handle has been modelled in the form of a sea-serpent. The arms applied to the front of the ewer are later, and are those of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843) (fig. 2). The arms are surrounded by the ribbon of the Order of the Garter embossed with the motto of the Order. The basin: Oval in shape, embossed and chased from a single sheet of silver. The form of a fantastical creature embossed on the rim at one end; the creature leans into the basin and 2 appears to drink. The interior of the basin divided into seven lobes, the centre reserved for a coat of arms flanked by four embossed shells. The arms are those of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843) surrounded by the ribbon of the Order of the Garter embossed with the motto of the Order. They are on a plaque applied over the original Dutch arms. The original arms visible in reverse on the underside of the basin (fig. 3) are those of Johan van der Haer (1573-1646) and his wife Maria van Kinschot (1589-1648). Marks The ewer is marked under the lip (fig. 4). From left to right, the marks are: a shield in a circular punch, the town mark for Utrecht; the letter ‘P’, the date letter for the assay year 1632; assay mark ‘Z’ for Zierikzee for the year 1795.1 Below, a zig-zag mark which represents part of the assaying process, whereby silver samples are removed for testing the purity of the silver. Another zig-zag assay mark on the underside of the lid. The basin marked on the centre of the underside, marks from left to right: ‘AV’ in monogram, the mark of the goldsmith Christian van Vianen; a shield in a circular punch, the town mark for Utrecht; the letter ‘P’, the date letter for the assay year 1632. These marks are quite worn. Above them, assay mark ‘Z’ for Zierikzee for the year 1795. 2. Importance Christian van Vianen: Life and Work Christian van Vianen came from an established family of Utrecht goldsmiths. His father Adam was famed for his innovative pieces which explored the possibilities of rendering the liquid properties of metal in sculptural form. This is strikingly illustrated in his ewer of 1614, made for the Guild of Amsterdam Goldsmiths (fig. 5: Adam van Vianen, Ewer, 1614, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Christian was apprenticed to his father, inherited his workshop, and absorbed and developed his father’s aesthetic and intellectual ideas. He also adopted his father’s ‘AV’ monogram as his own maker’s mark. Around 1650, Christian published a series of his father’s designs for silverwares.2 Unlike his father, Christian did not remain in Utrecht all his life but spent two extended periods in England and was buried there. A receipt shows he was already working for Charles I in 1630, but he did not arrive in London until 1632, where he remained almost permanently until 1643, when he returned to Utrecht. The 1 ter Molen, Die Utrechtse edelsmeden Van Vianen, cat. No. 87 (p. 98) for the marks; see also ter Molen, Zilver, p. 645 (for the Zierikzee mark). 2 Constighe Modellen, Van verscheijden Silvere Vaten, en andere sinnighe wercken, gevonden ende Geteeckent door den vermaerden E. Adam van Vianen Sijnde meerendeels door hem uyt een Stuck silvers geslagen (‘Ingenious models for various silver vessels, and other works of the imagination, invented and designed by the renowned silversmith Adam van Vianen, many of them raised from a single sheet of silver’). 3 restoration of Charles II brought him back to the English capital in November 1660, where he entered into partnership with another Dutch goldsmith. In 1663 Charles appointed him ‘silversmyth in ordinary’ to the royal household. Christian died in 1667 and was succeeded at court for a while by his son-in-law, John Cooqus.3 Christian van Vianen and a new aesthetic for silver The ewer and basin made by Christian for Johan van der Haer and Maria van Kinschot are superb examples of the extraordinary style of silversmithing which he developed from his father and which aroused such admiration among contemporary and later collectors. The hugely significant aspect of the works of Adam, and then Christian, van Vianen is that they developed a striking new aesthetic and a new way in which silver could be appreciated. Their fluid, sculptural approach to silver design had its visual origins in late- sixteenth-century Northern European engravings (fig. 6: Hendrick Goltzius, Bacchus, engraving after Cornelis Cornelisz (detail), 1598, Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam), which in turn were inspired by reworkings of a form of Ancient Roman ornament dubbed ‘grotesque’ by Renaissance artists. The flowing, organic forms of the works produced by Adam and Christian had an intellectual justification, Platonic in origin, that all metals were liquids that had congealed beneath the earth. Moreover, as moisture sustained the vital heat of all living creatures, the aqueous character of metals meant they could on some level be considered living organisms.4 This is certainly reflected in the sinuous, plastic vessels they created. The ewer and basin also show the close relationship between the works of father and son. The organic form of the ewer in particular harks back to the design of a 1619 one made by Adam (fig.