Pair of tazze
Nicolaes Adriaensz de Grebber
(Dutch, 1544/45–1613)
1604 and 1606
Medium/TechniqueSilver-gilt
DimensionsHeight x diameter: 15 × 18.5 cm (5 7/8 × 7 5/16 in.)
Credit LineGift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in honor of Thomas S. Michie, and in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession number2020.409.1-2
On View
Not on viewClassificationsSilver
Collections
This splendid pair of tazze, or drinking cups, are incredible examples of metalwork, with chased and engraved decoration on the inside and outside of the shallow cup, as well as cast decorative ornament on the stem. Though the tazze appear as a pair, they were made two years apart in 1604 and 1606. The robust and rich iconographic programs on the cups are complementary, as one depicts the four seasons and the other the four elements. The cups were only recently identified by renowned Dutch art historian Pieter Biesboer as works from the hand of Dutch silversmith Nicolaes Adriaensz de Grebber of Delft, on the basis of the maker’s mark of a bird claw. Technically drinking vessels, these are so elaborate in their decoration and with such a shallow bowl that they were likely for display.
ProvenanceMarch 14, 1956, anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, lot 163, sold for £2600. 1959, Premsela and Hamburger (dealer), Amsterdam [see note 1]. By 1961, Johan Willem Frederiks (b. 1889 – d. 1962), Leiden and The Hague; probably by descent within the family; May 15, 1984, anonymous (Frederiks collection and others) sale, Sotheby’s, Geneva, lot 30. By 1989, Mahdi Al-Tajir, London [see note 2]. November 27-28, 2012, anonymous (“Property of a Gentleman”) sale, Christie’s, London, lot 621, to S. J. Phillips, London; 2019, sold by Phillips to or through Galerie Neuse, Bremen; 2019, sold by Galerie Neuse to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA; 2020, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 16, 2020)
NOTES: [1] Lent to the exhibition “Konstskatter fram Hollands Guldalder” (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, January 24-March 25, 1959), cat. no. 30. [2] Included in the exhibition “The Glory of the Goldsmith. Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection” (London, 1989), cat. no. 3.
NOTES: [1] Lent to the exhibition “Konstskatter fram Hollands Guldalder” (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, January 24-March 25, 1959), cat. no. 30. [2] Included in the exhibition “The Glory of the Goldsmith. Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection” (London, 1989), cat. no. 3.
