Filigree vase with two handles decorated with mascarons with lion heads, Venice or à la façon de Venise, end 16th, early 17th century; colourless glass and white (lattimo) glass. Height: 18.3 cm Ø opening: 10.4 cm Ø foot: 8.3 cm. RIDES LAMÉRIS GLASS & ANTIQUES at TEFAF 2024. © 2024 TEFAF

Vase in the shape of an inverted baluster with a wide conical neck. A colourless indented band is applied around the outside of the opening. On both sides an S-shaped handle.The underside is decorated with a mascaron in the shape of a lionhead. Domed foot with a colourless band applied to the rim. The body and the foot are connected by a colourless merese.

The glass is made in the filigrana a retortoli technique. Like all the sixteenth century filigree examples it is made out of two layers of glass: a liner of colourless glass and an outer layer of canes. The canes are made in a pattern of 31 a rete (type Z) canes and 31 mixed canes with decoration of an internal straight thread and an external decoration of two groups of two threads. The handles are decorated with respectively nine and eight twisted threads. A rete canes are canes that look like fish nets (rete means ‘fish net’ in Italian). The additional Z means that the cane is made with threads that, viewed from the front, run from bottom left to top right. Research has shown that most filigrana a retortoli glasses from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are made with canes twisted in this direction.

Provenance: Glass collection Paul Brandenburg.

Paul Brandenburg (1930-2022) was a German sculptor. He worked with stone, bronze, aluminium, concrete, wood, ceramics and mosaic. From the beginning of his career a lot of his work was commissioned by the Catholic Church. Later he also worked for public spaces, his work featuring in the interiors of buildings like schools, swimming pools and industrial buildings, as well as outside, where he designed and made sculptures, fountains and monuments. He carried out all the work by himself, from the draft to the final artwork.
From the late seventies he started collecting glass. Looking at material and proportions he assembled a modest collection, always concerned with the beauty of the piece. In this way he collected ‘the history of glass’, from some Roman pieces, via Venetian and façon de Venise glass, to Dutch engraved glass in all its facets. The youngest piece in the collection is an example of the famous Salviati Guggenheim and harks back to the earlier glasses on which it was inspired.
For Tefaf 2024 we have selected the best ten pieces from the collection.

These vases belong to a group of Renaissance filigree glasses with a classical shape, inspired by models of Antiquity. One of the typical features of this group are the filigree handles with a mascaron at the lower end. Besides the type of vase described here, the group consists of vases in the shape of a scallop shell with two handles (for example like one held in the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio (1913.420)) and ewers with an elegant single very high handle (for example like the four that are held in the British Museum (1869,0624.44; 1869,0624.45; S 664; S 941)). Only a few vases like the Paul Brandenburg vase are known.There is one held in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles (84.DK.654) and a covered one in Museo Poldo Pezzoli in Milan (1879, n. 1667). A sixteenth century sheet of designs that probably is related to the Medici Glass workshop in Florence, shows eight very similar double handled vases (Cabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe degli Uffizi, 97242 (Catherine Hess, Timothy Husband, European Glass in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 1997, p. 107, fig. 27A)). In his Bichierografia of 1604, where Giovanni Maggi (1566 - circa 1618) depicted the glass collection of Cardinal del Monte (1549-1627), some glasses with a mascaron or prunt on top of the fold on the underside of the handle are shown (Giovanni Maggi, Bichierografia, 1604, book 1, p. 5, 30).

Goblet of the city council of Haarlem with a wheel engraving of on one side a ‘sawship’ destroying a harbour chain during the conquest of Damiate and on the other side the invention of the printing press by Laurens Jansz. Coster., The Netherlands, First half of the 18th century. Lead Glass, h. 19.3 cm Ø bowl: 8.1 cm Ø foot: 8.2 cm. RIDES LAMÉRIS GLASS & ANTIQUES at TEFAF 2024. © 2024 TEFAF

One side depicts two towers of a harbour in the sea with a ship sailing between them, causing a large chain attached to both towers to break. The ship is attacked from the towers by arrows and lances. Men can be seen between the battlements on both sides. In front of the left tower a flag with a symbol of an indistinct shape. It probably represents a crescent moon that, as a symbol of Islam, is clearly visible on the medal. In the foreground an engraving of the coat of arms of Haarlem with behind it two crossed palm branches and two crossed fasces with a lance in the middle.

On the other side of the bowl a woman under a radiant sun is engraved. She is dressed in antique armor with a cape, a sword on her left hip and a laurel wreath in her right hand. She leans lightly on a letterpress with her left hand. Books on the other side, one with the title TYPOGRAPHIA. Below her the inscription HARLEMUM.

‘Vroedschappen’ were colleges of a number of burgesses, men, from whom the magistrate was chosen from among their own ranks. The magistrate governed the city and consisted of mayors and aldermen (wethouders). Members of the council received a council medal that could be shown as proof of membership.

Following the example of the medal, the glass depicts two important events in the history of Haarlem that date from the Middle Ages. During the Fifth Crusade (1217-1221), several countries jointly planned to conquer Jerusalem from the hands of the Muslims. They wanted to reach Jerusalem via the Egyptian port city of Damietta. For this purpose the city was besieged. The Nile was defended with a harbor chain. A Haarlem ship with a saw on its bow sailed straight through the chain. This moment is depicted on the medal. Many works of art in Haarlem remind us of that moment. Research has shown that it is a legend. (Jaap van Moolenbroek, ‘De ketting van Damietta, een Haarlems zaagschip een Willem I van Holland, Over de wording en standaardisering van een kruistochtmythe’ in: Jaarboek voor Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis, 2011 (14) Hilversum, p. 113-150).

The other important event on the glass and the medal is the invention of the printing press by Laurens Jansz. Koster from Haarlem. He is said to have invented printing with separate letters (first the image and accompanying text were cut from one block. The letters quickly wore out). Today this story is also considered a legend (Lotte Hellinga-Querido and Clemens de Wolf, Laurens Janszoon Coster was zijn naam, Haarlem 1988).

According to Van Kerkwijk (A.O. Van Kerkwijk, ‘Romeyn de Hooghe als ontwerper van penningen’ in Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Genootschap voor Munt- en Penningkunde onder de zinspreuk ”Concordia res parvae crescunt”, Amsterdam 1915, p. 184-189) it was decided in Haarlem on November 18, 1687 to make a council medal. The Treasurer’s Account of 1688 describes that ‘Daniel Darpentier’ is paid for making stamps of the council tokens. The famous etcher and draftsman Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-17089) probably set the example for Daniël Drappentier (1643-1714). Like the Haarlem council medal, his prints are ‘often overloaded with images and additions’ (Van Kerkwijk 1915, p. 184-185). De Hooghe lived in Haarlem in 1688 and had a good relationship with the Magistrate, the government of Haarlem (Van Kerkwijk 1915, p. 186).

Romeyn de Hooghe was clearly inspired by the image of the sawship by Nicolaes Jansz Clock for the design of the medal, called ‘The capture of Damiate and the sailing over the chain’ (according to Moolenbroek this is the oldest image. Moolenbroek 2011, p. 114). The goblet was probably used during dinners after council meetings.

Ceremonial goblet with wheel engraving of a whaling scene, The Netherlands, First half 18th century, lead glass. Height: 20.7 cm, Ø bowl 8.0 cm, Ø foot 8.3 cm. RIDES LAMÉRIS GLASS & ANTIQUES at TEFAF 2024. © 2024 TEFAF

Ceremonial goblet with around the bowl a detailed and complex wheel engraving of a whaling scene. Five three-masters are depicted at sea with ice floes in the foreground. Small boats with seven fishermen each row through them, chasing two whales with harpoons.

One of the whales already has a harpoon in its back. The ship with reefed sails in the foreground holds a dead whale at starboard side. Boatsmen are working to dismantle the animal. With a pulley pieces of skin with blubber are being hoisted into the ship. To the left of the ship hang two parallel ropes that were probably used to hoist the rowing boats out of the water to hang them alongside. The back side of the ship is decorated with two flower garlands.

Provenance: From the heirs of a Dutch Collector.