Lot 768. A South German turned ivory contrefait, attributed to the workshop of Lorenz Zick (1594-1666), 17th century; height 11 1/4 in. 28.6 cm. Estimate 45,000 — 55,000 USD. Lot sold 134,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's

the gently lobed hexagonal foot rising in a stepped dome to a pierced spherical knop containing a loose internally carved ball, a flaring foliate ring above surrounding a delicately flaring double spiral supporting an openwork nest below a narrow stem centered on another openwork sphere below a thinly carved large sphere pierced with two portals for viewing and two holes through which emerge two tassled string pulls for opening and closing an interally carved hinged ivory container revealing two painted portraits of Saints, one probably Anthony, surmounted by another pierced ivory sphere containing a loose internally carved element from which posts emerge through the piercings, topped with a florette; with an old handwritten collection label, " III2= 9" and a typewritten label with "86."

Note: Perhaps the highest accomplishment of the art of turning ivory are the hollow spheres containing internally-turned discs or nesting spheres known as contrefait. These were among the most difficult forms in the turner's repertoire, with almost eggshell-thin ivory walls and complex forms turned within through a small aperture. The attempt to understand the technique by which these spheres are created is baffling to the viewer, and in this astonishment lies their intellectual appeal.

The practice required a highly sophisticated and perfectly calibrated lathe operated by a master turner. The earliest known example is a sphere turned by Giovanni Ambrogio Maggiore of Milan in 1582 now preserved in the Museo degli Argenti in Florence (Casazza 2004, p. 123, no. 2). Egidius Lobenigk of Dresden was another innovator of the form, and in the Grünes Gewölbe there are four signed spheres of the early 17th century by Georg Friedel (Syndram and Scherner 2004, p. 197, no. 91). The present contrefait features an internally-turned hinged circular box with a two pairs of strings attached to the open side of the box and threaded through either side of the sphere; this mechanism allows the viewer to open and close the internal compartment in which are contained tiny paintings. An engraving accompanying Doppelmayer's Historisches Nachricht of 1730 describes a contrefait of similar form with the same internal circular hinged box and opening mechanism by Lorenz Zick (Maurice 1985, p. 111, no. 119). Almost identical to the present lot is a sphere on a spiralling stem is in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich (Maurice 1985, p. 84, no. 97). A similar contrefait with a double-eagle finial and a Unicorn reclining at the base, attributed to the Zick workshop, is in the treasury of the Basilica at Mariazell (Phillipovich 1965, p. 302, no. 229). Another of very similar form, containing a portrait of Empress Maria Theresia, is in the Kremsmünster monastery collection (op. cit., p. 303, no. 230).

Lorenz, the son of the turner Peter Zick, and grandson of the turner Martin Zick, was the most accomplished of the three brothers who all took up the family craft. He was called to Vienna in 1642-4 to instruct Emperor Ferdinand III and was appointed Kammerdrechsler of the imperial court.

Sotheby's. Property from the Collections of Lily & Edmond J. Safra - Volumes I-VI. New York | 18 Oct 2011 - www.sothebys.com