Studio of Jan Van Kessel the Elder (Antwerp 1626 – 1679), Four still lifes with fruits and flowers in baskets and glass vases, game and vegetables, with guinea pigs. Photo Sotheby's.

Quantité: 4; a set of four, all oil on copper; each: 16.3 by 21.7 cm.; 6 3/8  by 8 1/2  in. Estimation  40,000 — 60,000 GBP

Typical of the studio of Jan van Kessel the Elder, these pictures show several motifs used in other works that have been previously given to the master. Most notably the deer recurs in a work that was with the Galerie d'Art Saint Honoré, Paris, in 2000.1 The cabbage is also found in a still life that was with the same gallery in 2004.2 Although Klaus Ertz attributes these types of works to Jan Kessel the Younger (1654-1708), Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie tends to favour an attribution to an unknown hand working in the studio of Jan van Kessel the Elder, possibly to be identified as Ferdinand van Kessel (1648-after 1696). A pair of coppers, catalogued as Studio of Jan van Kessel the Elder, similar in size and conception to the present works, made £70,000 when they were sold London, Christie's, 3 December 2008, lot 142. 

1. See K. Ertz & C. Nite-Ertz, Die Maler, Jan van Kessel, Lingen 2012, p. 426, cat. no. 103, reproduced.
2. Ibid, p. 424, cat no. 96, reproduced. 

Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Day Sale. London | 05 déc. 2013 - www.sothebys.com