gilt silver, executed in full round, detachable head, twelve-pointer with delicately chased fur, the right foreleg placed on a tree stump. Base plate with repoussé animal motifs (frog, grasshopper, lizard, snail), height 27 cm, base plate 21 x 12.7 cm, weight 728 g, assayer’s puncture (‘Tremolierstich’), c. 1600, (Lu)

Luxurious drinking vessels in the shape of animals often decorated tables at court and were used to display the status of their owners. Such vessels were especially popular in the period around 1600, and stags were a favourite animal motif, since hunting was one of the privileges of the nobility.

Provenance:
Emma Budge Collection (1852 -1937), Hamburg;
Forced sale Auktionshaus Paul Graupe, Berlin, October 4-6, 1937, lot 200 (as Balthasar Holweck), buyer: Schmidt f. Holzhausen;
Auction Galerie Jürg Stuker (private collection Jürg Stuker and estate Robert Stuker Pascha), Bern, October 26-31, 1989, lot 4011;
Private collection Germany;
Art Trade Switzerland.

The auction takes place with the consent of the heirs after Emma Budge.

Emma Ranette Budge, née Lazarus, was born in Hamburg on February 17, 1852. Married to German-American banker Henry Budge († 1928), Emma Budge lived in the United States for over two decades before returning to Hamburg in 1903. Here, the couple converted a previously acquired villa into the so-called Budge Palace, which became a center for cultural and social life in Hamburg. After her death on February 14, 1937, her collection of more than 1,000 exhibits of arts and crafts, porcelain, gold, silver, furniture, and paintings was sold at forced auction by the Paul Graupe auction house; against her express wishes, the Palais was purchased by the City of Hamburg for far less than its value, and the proceeds were transferred to a blocked account. The majority of her enormous art collection, which mainly comprised handicrafts, porcelain and paintings, is still considered lost today.