MARK OF GUSTAV MOLLENBORG, STOCKHOLM, 1897

This magnificent centerpiece was mounted under the direction of Andreas Aarflot (1848 - 1937), after designs by Otto Valdemar Strandman. Aarflot, master of Mollenborg's, the court jewelers, was chosen early in his career to undertake work for the Swedish Royal family, restoring the christening font for the baptism of Gustav VI Adolph, and the great "Drentwett" throne before the visit of the Kaiser Wilhelm II, of Germany. The largest work undertaken by Mollenborg's under the direction of Aarflot, though, was the mounting in silver of this horn. After it was mounted with reportedly thirty kilos of silver, the finished work was then exhibited at the 1897 General Industrial and Art Exhibition in Stockholm together with other Aarflot works, including a long ship belonging to Prince Oscar Bernadotte (1859 - 1953), and a gold and silver-mounted nautilus cup, later given to the National Museum of Stockholm. The massive ox horn which forms the central component of the present lot is reputed to have originally belonged to King Charles XV of Sweden and Norway. An ardent collector of antiques and curiosities, many of King Charles's possessions, including the present horn, were sold at auctions in Stockholm after his death in 1872, at which time the horn was purchased by L. C. Ferron, the then owner of Mollenborg's shop, probably on behalf of the pharmaceutical magnate and collector B. G. J. Cavalli of Skovde, Sweden, who paid for it to be mounted in silver. The horn was later sold from Cavalli's collection in 1988.