Studio of Pieter Clasez. (Berchem 1597/8-1660 Haarlem) - An overturned roemer on a pewter ewer, a pie, a bread roll and a partly-peeled lemon on pewter plates, a roemer, knives, walnuts and vine leaves on a partly-draped table

with monogram 'PC' (lower centre on the knife) - oil on panel, unframed - 18¾ x 25 1/8 in. (47.6 x 63.8 cm.) - Price Realized: £24,500

Notes: Sam Segal has suggested an alternative attribution to Cornelis Kruys (Haarlem c. 1620-before 1660 Schiedam), having examined the original (24 April 1999) noting: 'The work may be compared with a monogrammed painting in a private Danish collection (panel, 43 x 60 cm.) with a similar jug and upside down glass, three pewters and a fruit pie, reproduced in Gammelbo [Dutch Still-Life Painting from the 16th to the 18th Centuries in Danish Collections] 1960, no. 55 and in Vroom [A Modest Message as intimated by the painters of the 'Monochrome Banketje'] 1980, no. 216 and with a painting in a Belgian private collection (panel, 51 1/2 x 84 cm.) with a vine twig, pewters, a half peeled lemon and a roll of bread. A similar berkemeier occurs in several works by Kruys. The painting shows relationships with works by the Haarlem painter Pieter Claesz, e.g. a work of 1632 (formerly with Gallery Koetser, Zurich) and a work of 1640 with an identical knife in the Martin-von-Wagner-Museum in Wurzburg.'

Dr. Martina Brunner-Bulst also suggested that this work could be by '(the young) Cornelis Cruys imitating still lifes by Pieter Claesz.' (letter dated 11 October 1990).

Christie's London. OLD MASTER PICTURES. 25 April 2008