NAVIGATION

A German Turned Ivory Octagonal Vessel or Pyx with Knopped Cover of Exceptional Quality Perhaps for Private Devotional Use in a Chapel to Hold the Communion Host
Superb smooth silky cream coloured patina
1st Half 17th Century

Size: 9cm high, 8cm dia. (max) - 3½ ins high, 3 ins dia. (max)

 

Three important princely and Imperial courts were based in the cities of Dresden, Munich and Vienna from the late 16th to the 18th century. Patronage was lavished on these three courts during the Baroque period and some of the works they produced in turned ivory are amongst the finest ever made. The first half of the 17th century was the era of the ‘mechanised world view’ and a golden age for the natural sciences. The fashionable delight of the aristocracy was turning and princely lathes were the most sophisticated mechanical tools available. Turning was considered an act of creation entirely different to carving, which was considered a craft. Turning was a mechanical skill which could only be practised by means of a machine.
     As Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria engraved in 1608 on an ivory vessel he had turned ‘Ebur Ars Nobilitat, Artem Auctor Maximilianus Dux Bavariae’ translating as ‘Art ennobles ivory the creator (of this vessel) Maximilian Duke of Bavaria on the other hand, ennobles art’.