Name: GERMAN, LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Brand: A writing casket
Price: 5500.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

GERMAN, LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY
A writing casket
polychrome oak and iron, the hinged slope opening to reveal a painted interior with the Crucifixion and four coats of arms inscribed respectively Jochim Blecke, Andreas Winkelman, Achatius Sartor and Dieterich Laurentzen; with panels simulating drawer fronts and compartments for letters; with three keys

9³⁄₄ x 21¹⁄₂ x 17³⁄₄ in. (24 x 54.8 x 45 cm.)

The Alder Collection; Sotheby's, London, 24 February 2005, lot 164.

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Lot Essay

The present lot is likely to have been intended for use as a church warden’s writing desk. The coat of arms represented above the name of Andreas Winkelman has been published in connection with a ‘Conradus Winkelmann’ whose arms appear on the baptismal font in St. Matthäus church in Padingbüttel, Lower Saxony, perhaps providing a clue as to the present lot’s area of production (see J. Siebmacher, Grosses und allgemeines Wappenbuch, Nuremberg, 1920, p. 41, pl. 52.)
A comparable ‘coffer in the form of a reading desk’, described as Russian and from the 17th century, is housed in the Musée le Secq des Tournelles, Rouen (see H. R. d’Allemagne, Decorative Antique Ironwork, New York, 1968, p. 392).