An important silver gilt Baroque chalice for the Prince Bishop of Lübeck.
Lobed base on a tall, engraved apon supporting a faceted shaft. The compressed pommel decorated with acanthus scrolls and separated into rhombus shaped rotuli inscribed "IHESUS". The tapering and slightly flaring cup issuing from a basket motif with finely chased acanthus scrolls. Engraved with the coat of arms of the Prince Bishop of Lübeck, August Friedrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (1666 - 1705). The underside engraved with the weight "1 Pfund, 10 5/8 loth.". H 20.5 cm, weight 622 g.
Kiel, marks of Berend von Aken, last third 17th C.
August Friedrich was Prince Bishop of Lübeck from 1666 until his death in 1705. His grave is located in the Marientidenkapelle in the choir of Lübeck cathedral. Berend von Aken worked as a master goldsmith in Kiel and later in Eutin, where he received the privilege of becoming a court goldsmith in 1697. A communion jug by this maker is still housed in the palace chapel at Eutin, and a communion chalice and paten for sickbed visits in the church of Neukirchen.
Provenance
Former cathedral treasury of Lübeck (possession of the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg); as of 1932 in the collection of Leopold Salomon, Dresden, who moved to The Hague in the same year; sold to Hans Posse in 1941 as part of the "Sonderauftrag Linz"; restituted to the Netherlands in 1946; restituted to Leopold Salomon's heirs in 2008; Lempertz auction 946 on 20th November 2009, lot 296; private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia.
Literature
Illus. in: Schmidt, Die Goldschmiede im Dienste der Gottorfer Herzöge, in: Beiträge zur Heimatforschung in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg und Lübeck, vol. 33, Heide 1964, p. 85, illus. 3; mentioned in: Zeitzschel, Die Gold- und Silberschmiede im östlichen Schleswig-Holstein, Neumünster 1998, p. 146, here listed as "on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht".