Hexagonal dish

The center of each dish in this set (acc. nos. 2010.110.42–49) bears an engraved laurel wreath encircling a coat of arms. Small differences in these arms could be the result of different masters working quickly to complete what was probably a much larger set for a wedding that was fast approaching. The bold blossoms in the six corners symbolize both the wish for abundance throughout marriage and the transitory glories of earthly existence. Salgo acquired two of these dishes at a later date from the others, but all eight pieces belonged to the same set of fourteen dishes that were once part of the Andrássy treasury.

Literature

European Silver. Sale cat., Sotheby’s, Geneva, November 15, 1983, p. 19, no. 53.

European Silver. Sale cat., Sotheby’s, Geneva, November 14, 1984, n.p., no. 34.

Judit H. Kolba. Hungarian Silver: The Nicolas M. Salgo Collection. London, 1996, p. 86, no. 64.

Exhibited

Régi ezüstkiállításának leíró lajstroma. Exh. cat. Museum of Applied Arts. Budapest, 1927, p. 17, no. 87.

References

Important Orfèvrerie Européenne, Boîtes en Or et Objets de Vitrine. Sale cat., Sotheby's, Paris, December 1, 2011, p. 171, no. 280.

For a similar example, see Erdély régi művészeti emlékeinek kiállítása az Iparművészeti múzeumban / Ausstellung alten Kunstgewerbes aus Siebenbürgen. Exh. cat. Museum of Applied Arts. Budapest, 1931, p. 46, no. 223, pl. XIV.

Compare with a pair of Romanian silver-gilt octagonal dishes dated circa 1640 by Andreas Eckhardt engraved with the arms of Barcsai sold by Sotheby’s, London, December 4, 2012 (Dr. Heller’s Lexicon, pp. 116–17, no. 215).

A German hexagonal dish with floral decoration in the border, bearing the mark of David Bessmann, Augsburg, circa 1660, was sold by Christie's, London, July 8, 2015, no. 35.

For an example of a hexagonal dish in serpentine, see Gert-Dieter Ulferts, Sächsischer Serpentin: Sammlung Jahn. Berlin, 2000, pp. 58-9, no. 30.

[Wolfram Koeppe 2015]

Credit: Gift of The Salgo Trust for Education, New York, in memory of Nicolas M. Salgo, 2010