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Artist or Maker: CIRCA 1600, NORTH GERMAN OR FLEMISH, APPARENTLY UNMARKED
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Provenance: Maximilian-Emmanuel, 3rd Prince of Horne (1695-1753).
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Notes: VARIOUS PROPERTIES
The map source for the globe
The geography of the globe is based almost exactly on a world map drawn up by the Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius, and published in Amsterdam in the early 1590s in an edition of the States General Bible. The map is one of Plancius's first world maps and in this globe the omission of the name Magallanica across the Antarctic shows that the geography is copied from the earliest issue of that map which was published in a number of editions of the Dutch Bible in the early 1590s.
This particular globe cup has a number of distinct features which tie it firmly to Plancius's geography. A comparison with the published map shows the cup to be a remarkable copy of the flat world map; the lettering and spacing accords very closely, the captions and descriptions are almost identical, excepting where space is limited or where the broad lines of the equator, circles and tropics take space away from the underlying geography. Plancius used a version of Rumold Mercator's double-hemisphere map of 1587 as a base and incorporates Ortelius's improvements including a re-shaped South America and the inclusion of the Soloman Islands. Plancius has added in the latest Portuguese information on the west coast of America and east coast of Asia. Japan is shown for the first time as one small and three larger islands and New Guinea is a separate large island.
Petrus Plancius was a minister of the Reformed Church but as a keen geographer, used the Bible that he edited to circulate his geographical ideas. Plancius was particularly interested in studying Portuguese manuscript maps and is known to have obtained 25 nautical charts from Bartolemeo Lasso. His large eighteen sheet wallmap published in Antwerp or Amsterdam in 1592, now known only by a single example, became the prototype of many great Dutch maps. In 1602 Plancius was appointed official cartographer to the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
The use of the Plancius geography for this globe, based on a map widely available at the time in a Dutch bible, is an interesting combination. Plancius's high standing in the geographical community of Amsterdam and the Low Countries would have given this cup an additional kudos. It would be interesting to postulate that this globe cup might have been related to Plancius's role in the VOC and was used originally as a gift to a noblemen or ranking official.
Globe cups
Broadly speaking, the roughly forty or so extant late 16th and 17th century silver globe cups fall into three main categories. The first are the no less than seventeen by, or attributed to, Abraham Gestener of Zurich made around 1600 (see E.M. Lösel, Zübrcher Goldschmiede Kunst, Zurich, 1983, pp. 194-198 for details of sixteen, the other was sold Sotheby's Geneva lot 69). The stems of these are remarkably consistent being either a kneeling or standing figure or an attenuated vase. The second is the wonderful group of German examples made in Augsburg and Nuremberg in the 17th century, which mostly have superbly modelled figural stems.
There is a the third distinctive group of just three examples that comprise the present cup, an example formerly in the A. Rütschi collection (Sammlung A. Rütschi aus dem Kunsthaus Zürich, Galerie Jörg Stuker, Bern, 26/27 November, 1954, lot 21), and an electrotype in silver in the collection of the National Maritime Museum Greenwich (GLBO177) ). All of these are similar but far from identical.
While the present cup is unmarked, the Rütschi example and the electrotype appear to be marked with the maker"s mark KH and a town mark of an eagle identified by Otto von Falk (Alte Goldschmiedewerke im Zürcher Kunsthaus, Zürich and Leipzig, 1928, s.24, no 259, pl.59) as being that of an unidentified Aachen maker of around 1580. Indeed the Rütschi cup was exhibited, with the same attribution and dating, in the historic Aachen exhibition organized by Peter Ludwig (Aachener Kunstblätter des Museumsvereins, Aachen, 1962, p. 146, cat. no. 62A).
This Aachen attribution by von Falk was based on the work of Marc Rosenberg, (Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen, Frankfurt, 1922, vol. I, nos. 18 and 32). However, he omits the fact that Rosenberg, in a very uncharacteristic error, also lists the same marks under Frankfurt (vol. III, nos. 1997/8 and 2030) underlining just how difficult the correct identification of the eagle town mark is in German and Flemish silver. It should be noted that there are a number of elements on this cup, such as the basket of fruit beneath the finial, that are very Flemish in character.
Maximilian-Emmanuel, 3rd Prince of Horne
Maximilian-Emmanuel, 3rd Prince of Horne (1695-1753) was made a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Charles VI in 1736. He was also Count of Baucignies, de Houtkercke and Bailleur, Baron of Boxteln, of Locres, of Lesdaing and of Saint-Martin and Lord of Piermolnt, of Lestrem, of d"Estrelles and of other lands. He was awarded the order of the Golden Fleece. He was a member of state in Brabant and highly placed at the Court of the Governor of the Low Countries, Charles of Lorraine.
He was born on August 31st, 1695 and married in 1722 Charlotte Maria (1704-1736), daughter of Thomas Bruce, 3rd Earl of Elgin and 2nd Earl of Ailesbury (1656-1741) by his second wife Charlotte Jacqueline, Countess of Esneux and Baroness Melsbroeck (d.1710). He married secondly, in 1738, Hennrietta-Therese-Norbertine de Salm (d.1751), daughter of Henri-Gabriel Joseph Count de Salm-Kirbourg and his wife Marie-Therese de Croy and thirdly, in 1751, Marie-Albertine-Therese-Philippine de Gavre (d.1779), daughter of Charles-Emmanuel-Joseph, Prince de Gavre, knight of the Golden Fleece and his wife, Louise-Therese-Henriette, Baroness of Waho-de-Franville.
There appear to be a number of close ties with the Scottish Roman Catholic community and indeed, Maximilian-Emmanuel and Charlotte-Maria"s granddaughter, Louise Maximilienne Caroline Emanuelle married Charles Edward Stuart, "the Young Pretender". It is perhaps then no coincidence that this cup is known to have a Scottish provenance.
Maximilian-Emmanuel was the last male heir of the family. He died in Brussels on January 11th 1763 and was buried at Issche. The year after his death an agreement was drawn up to settle a dispute that resulted from the will of Maximilien-Emmanuel"s father, Philippe-Emmanue, written shortly before the 2nd Prince"s death in 1718. This dispute, originally between Maximilian-Emmanuel and his two son-in-laws Stolberg and Salm-Kirburgs, commenced in 1754. The final settlement ten years later involved the sale of a considerable amount of the Maximilian-Emmanuels's property and chattels. The contemporary documents outlining the agreement were drawn up by the lawyers, Martin de Heslin and Jean-Baptiste Murray and dated 3 October 1754. They show that, even after certain payments were made, the various sales of Maximilian-Emmanuel's property and chattels etc. raise some 130,104 florins. This enormous sum came in part from the following:
The sale of furniture, plates and vessels 22,789
The furniture and effects of chateau d' 'Isque 9,782
Plates and vessels 8,354, and there was still remaining 200 ounces of silver-gilt vessels worth around 700 florins
The Golden Fleece set with diamonds and four others 4,459 florins
A piece of the True Cross set with diamonds 525 florins
Books 1,500 florins
Paintings from the Hotel de Hornes, some medals in gold silver and copper, some reliquaries, rosaries and other ornaments from the chapel 6,000 florins
The sale of dogs 80 florins
(see Guy vande Putte, Hornjaarboek, Overijse, 1977, p.156-157).
Metal analysis by Professor Ernst-Ludwig Richter of Stuttgart is entirely consistent with the dating of this cup.
(We are grateful to Philippe Palassi for his identification of the coat-of-arms. We would also like to thank Lorenz Selig of the Bayerisches National Museum, Munich, and Prof. Dr. Johann-Michael Fritz for their opinions, the former based on photographs, that this cup dates from around 1600 and was made in a North German or Flemish centre rather than Nuremberg or Augsburg).
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