Live auction - Lot 20

A lost piece of Flemish history

[Flemish school]

Golden lion of the Ostend Company.

1724


Hammer price: € 1.000

€ 300 / 400

Live bidding (Drouot*) Live bidding (Invaluable*)

Bidding is closed


Lot description

Drawing, brown ink, 20,0 x 15,5 cm, laid paper, unsigned (flattened horizontal fold at centre).

Mounted on blue and white paper with an elaborate ms. note in pen. Framed (not studied outside frame).

The ms. note on the mount makes clear the drawing depicts the golden lion of 35 pounds that was produced by an Antwerp artist. The ornamental piece was a gift from the board of the Ostend Company (officially the General Company Established in the Austrian Netherlands for Commerce and Navigation in the Indies) to Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740) and was transported to Vienna by two men (Prolij and Van Cessel) on 6 September 1724. The sculpture consists of a crowned lion with the coat of arms of the Ostend Company and several allegorical figures such as Neptune below. Our drawing most closely resembles a drawing in Antwerp (St Charles Borromeo's Church; RKD Images 111790), but other designs for the golden lion are also in Antwerp (Museum Plantin-Moretus, inv. CVH.0097 and PK.OT.01084). Throughout the centuries the ornamental piece was melted down to recover the gold.
Ref. L. De Ren in F. Baudouin (ed.), Tekeningen uit de 17de en 18de eeuw. De verzameling Van Herck, Brussels 2000, pp. 231-233, 313. - W. Nys, Zilver uit Antwerpen, exh. cat. Sterckshof, Antwerp 2006, pp. 181-182.

More photos

Live bidding

Bidding is closed


Lot 20

A lost piece of Flemish history

Golden lion of the Ostend Company.

Please log in to bid
create an account here .
Log in
© Arenberg Auctions 2024 – Webdesign Webit
Voorwaarden | Privacy Policy | Cookiebeleid