A vanitas still life with a skull, sheet music, silver and gold coins, a bouquet of flowers and a broken candle

Details

AUSTRIAN SCHOOL, EARLY 19TH CENTURY
A vanitas still life with a skull, sheet music, silver and gold coins, a bouquet of flowers and a broken candle
oil on panel
17 1/2 x 22 5/8 in. (44.5 x 57.9 cm.)

Provenance

John Corely, Grays Inn; (†) his sale, Christie's, London, 17 February 1866, lot 38, as J. Van Streek (4 gns. to Eckford).
Henry George Bohn (1796-1884), North End House, Twickenham; (†) his sale, Christie's, London, 19 March 1885, lot 410, as J. van Streik (5 gns. to Durford).
Private collection, Norfolk, by descent until,
[Property of a Gentleman]; Sotheby's, London, 4 December 1997, lot 234, where acquired by the present owner.

Special Notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The silver Koventionstalers in the foreground of this still life were the standard coin of the Austrian Empire in the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, the most famous example, the Maria Theresa Taler, is still minted today. The portrait of Maximilian Joseph, 1^st King of Bavaria, visible on the propped-up coin at lower left assists in dating this painting to the early nineteenth century, as he ascended the throne in 1806.

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