An engraved silver brandy bowl

An engraved silver brandy bowl

A finely engraved brandy bowl, of octagonal form, the bowl standing on a domed conforming foot chased with flowers and fruits, above a waisted stem with rope border and a band of diamonds, the horizontally mounted cast handles decorated with cherub masks and symmetrically pierced, the sides engraved with lobated cartouches with masks, enclosing personifications of the Five Senses, hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch, two cartouches below the pierced handles engraved with fruit clusters, the central medallion with a possible coat-of-arms consisting of feathered helmet above two pairs of engraved initials L.G and A.C in an escutcheon.

Dutch brandy bowls, or brandewijnskoppen, typical objects that were made in the northern part of Holland, in Friesland and Groningen, appear in 17^th-century inventories. Filled with brandy and currants they were used at special occasions such as the birth of a child or at a wedding. The bowl, also containing the typical decorated spoon, used to be placed on the table in the home of the bride’s parents. The guests toasted on the couple’s good fortune. The earliest bowls, dated circa 1500, were made in earthenware or pewter. Around 1600-1630 brandy bowls were made of porcelain with silver or silver-gilt mounts. Up to the third quarter of the 17th century the bowls were octagonal. Their panels were engraved with biblical scenes or personifications related to the owners and mostly engraved with initials and the wedding date.

Wyntje Berends van Asten was a silversmith active in Leeuwarden from 1642 until 1690. He was the son of Berend Rikkes and Antie Thomasdr., who was the widow of Wyntje Eelkes (Voet n° 397). He was trained by Harmen Dirks (Voet n° 387) from 1625. Van Asten married Fedtie Pieters in 1647. He was a member of the Leeuwarden city Council (vroedsman) from 1657 until 1676 and acted as a market master from that year until his passing in 1690. In 1689 he left the guild. Next to the present brandy bowl he manufactured a.o. the communion beaker of Jorwerd (1652, collection OKS, kept in the Fries Museum, inv. n° Z06735), and another communion beaker dated 1658, owned by the Dutch Reformed church of Reitsum, near Dokkum.

Marked, on the reverse base:

Maker’s mark: WB conjoined in shaped shield for Wyntje Berends van Asten (1612 Leeuwarden 1690)

Date letter: T in a shaped shield, for Leeuwarden, 1650

Town mark: lion rampant to left in a shield, for Leeuwarden, 1650

Tax control mark: an axe, Netherlands, 1853-1927