A rare Frankfurt mortar made by Conrad Gobel
Thick cast bronze with high copper content and fine dark brown patina. Decorated with a frieze of large acanthus leaves above the base and below the rim. Both sides decorated: The display side with three large figures of putti in flight, two threatening the putto supporting the shield with bows and arrows, the reverse with a round medallion bearing a portrait of a man in profile framed by a banderole inscribed in capital letters: "CONRADT GEBEL BVGSENGISER ZV FRANCFORT". The base rounded and cracked due to usage. H 28, D 26.6 cm. Weight c. 25.9 kg.
Frankfurt, Conrad Gobel, mid-16th century.
Conrad or Konrad Gobel (Göbel) was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1498 as the son of the Dinkelsbühl-born pot and can caster Niclas Gobel. In 1528 he was appointed to the post of town gunsmith, which he held until 1560. Besides numerous cannons, such as the famous cannon for Braunfels Castle dated 1538, Gobel also cast several bells, including two for St. Stephen's Cathedral in Mainz in 1544 and 1545, one for the town hall of Hochheim in 1548 and one for the parish church in Ebersheim in Rheinhessen in 1557. He often incorporated casts of medals, intaglios and antique coins into his designs - the fine half-length portrait in this work may have been one of these. Mortars with his signature are extremely rare.
Literature
For more information on this caster cf.: Thieme / Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler, Munich 1992, vol. 13, p. 277 f.