Image Not Available

Double spouted vessel

first half of 16th century

Object PlaceFrance

Medium/TechniqueLead-glazed earthenware. Slipware (terre vernissee)

DimensionsHeight 26 cm (10 1/4 in.)

Credit LineGift of R. Thornton Wilson in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson

Accession number65.28

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsCeramics

Collections

Europe

ProvenanceOscar Bondy (b. 1870 - d. 1944) and Elisabeth Bondy, Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Oscar and Elisabeth Bondy by Nazi forces (no. OB 78) [see note 1]; stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna and selected for the Führermuseum, Linz [see note 2]; removed to the monastery of Kremsmünster (no. Kku 481) and subsequently to Alt Aussee; July 2, 1945, recovered by Allied forces and taken to the Munich Central Collecting Point (no. 2295/5) [see note 3]; June 17, 1947, released to the United States Forces in Austria for restitution to Elisabeth (Mrs. Oscar) Bondy, New York [see note 4]; probably sold by Mrs. Bondy to Blumka Gallery, New York; December 7, 1964, sold by Blumka to R. Thornton Wilson (b. 1886 - d. 1977), New York; 1965, gift of R. Thornton Wilson to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 13, 1965)

NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Oscar and Elisabeth Bondy were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This vessel is included in a Nazi-generated inventory of his collection (July 4, 1938; Vienna, BDA-Archiv, Restitutions-Materialen, K 8/1), no. 78 ("Grünglasierte Kanne mit Doppelausguss, H=26.5."

[2] The Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria, was given right of first refusal over the confiscated collection. This vessel was selected for inclusion.

[3] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the artwork ar the end of World War II and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This vessel came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (no. 1639/5) and was numbered 2295.

[4] Mr. Bondy and his wife left Europe and emigrated to the United States, where he passed away in 1944. In the years following World War II, much of his collection was restituted to his widow and subsequently sold on the New York art market, particularly through Blumka Gallery. For further on Oscar Bondy, see Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens (Vienna, 2003), pp. 216-245.