Lot 607. Property from a Swiss Private Collection. Attributed to the Workshop of Hans Kopenkaupt (circa mid 1500s - 1623), German, Stuttgart, First Quarter 17th Century, Agate Cup, enameled silver and agate, height: 11.7 cm. Lot Sold 25,400 USD (Estimate 20,000 - 30,000 USD). © Sotheby's 2024

the underside with two printed inventory labels from the Baden family collection: one from 1833 handwritten with the number 63 and the other from 1919 with the number 273.

Provenance: Friedrich I von Baden (1826-1907), Grand Duke, Karlsruhe Palace;
Thence by descent to his son, Friedrich II von Baden (1857-1928), Grand Duke, Neues Schloss, Baden-Baden;
Thence by inheritance to his cousin, Maximilien von Baden (1867-1929), Imperial Chancellor;
Thence by descent to his son, Berthold von Baden (1906-1963), Margrave of Baden;
Thence by descent to his son, Maximilian von Baden (1933-2022), Margrave of Baden;
His family's sale, Baden-Baden, Sotheby's, The collection the Magnanimous Margraves of Baden, 5-21 October 1995, lot 381;
Where acquired.

Note: The present agate cup was first recorded in the inventory of Frederick I, the Grand Duke of Baden (1826-1907) in 1883.¹ It was likely a part of the Grand Duke's Naturaliencabinet, along with other objets de vertu, at the Karlsruhe Palace. Upon the Duke's death and the subsequent division of his property, it was exhibited in the rooms of the Neues Schloss in Baden-Baden.

The cup has been attributed to the workshop of Hans Kobenhaupt, a goldsmith in service of the aristocrats of Württemberg, active in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The present work bears a resemblance to a separate agate cup by Kobenhaupt that is housed in the Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. That cup is signed HK, and was most likely commissioned by the Duke Johann Friedrich of Württemberg (1582 - 1628). Although the signed cup is more elaborate in decoration than the present work, the royal provenance of both pieces, the proximity of their origins and their shared material suggests that the present work is also by Kobenhaupt. 

¹Karl Koelitz, Beschreibendes Inventar (Katalog) der Allerhöchsten Privatsammlung kunstgewerblicher Gegenstände (Zähringer museum), Aufgestellt in der Raiimen des ehemaligen Grossherzoglichen Naturalienkabinets, Karlruhe, 1883, no. 63 (handwritten inventory kept at Neues Schloss Baden-Baden).

Sotheby's. Master Sculpture & Works of Art, New York, 2 February 2024