A rare Dutch diamond-point engraved green-tinted Roemer, second half 17th century. Photo Bonhams

The rounded cup-shaped bowl decorated in diamond-point with four pairs of comical male and female dwarfs, one pair with musical instruments, the others dancing or promenading, the tall cylindrical lower section applied with four rows of applied raspberry prunts below an engrailed band, above a spreading spun foot, 25.5cm high (foot repaired). Sold for £27,500 inc. premium

Provenance: Formerly in a private collection, Amsterdam
The Fritz Biemann Collection, Zürich, sold at Sotheby's, 16 June 1984, lot 21

Exhibited: Spessartmuseum, Munich, 'Glück und Glas: zur Kulturgeschichte des Spessartglases', Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, 1984 

Literature: Corning Museum of Glass, Journal of Glass Studies, vol.23 (1981), p.93
Claus Grimm, Glück und Glas : zur Kulturgeschichte des Spessartglases Spessartmuseum catalogue, Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte (1984), p.368
Rudolf von Strasser, Licht und Farbe (2002), p.73 

The dwarfs are taken from a series of prints entitledFacetieuses inventions d'amour et de guerre, Paris circa 1634, after Stefano della Bella (1610-74), the print probably by François Collignon (1611-85), a pupil of Jacques Callot (1592-1635).

The only other recorded example of a glass decorated by this hand is a clear-glass beaker, also engraved with dwarfs, in the Willet Holthuysen Museum, Amsterdam (inv.nr. KA 5250). A Roemer and cover in the Museum Boynemans van Beningen, Rotterdam bearing the arms of the House of Orange, Rotterdam and the Admiralty, is also engraved with Collignon's dwarfs and has been attributed to the hand of Marinus van Gelder, circa 1660 (see H.E. van Gelder, Glas en ceramiek. De kunsten van het vuur (1955), p.42, no.3, plate XXI, fig. 3 and Rudolf von Strasser & Walter Spiegl, Dekoriertes Glas (1989), p.181). A Dutch diamond-point engraved flute, circa 1660, attributed to the same hand can be found in the collection of Rudolf von Strasser (seeLicht und Farbe (2002), pp.72-73, no.34).

Bonhams. 2 May 2013 10:30 BST London, New Bond Street. The Muhleib Collection of European Glass