A rare carved and engraved smoky quartz shell cup - Lot 9

A rare carved and engraved smoky quartz shell cup The cup is finely carved with scrolls and engraved with florets (meleagris fritillaries). It stands on an inverted baluster stem, carved with rounded arches. The oblong base is carved with scrolls and stylised foliage. Good condition. The stone cut and engraved by Friedrich WINTER (active 1685-1711) Germany, Silesia, probably Hermsdorf, circa 1690 Height: 14.7 cm. Length: 16.5 cm. Width: 10.4 cm. Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Michel Meyer, Paris Comparative bibliography: - H. Seydel, “Beitrage zur Geschichte des Spiegelstein – und Glasschnitts und der Glaserzeugung im Riesen – und Isergebirge” in Schlesiens Vorzeit in Bild und Schrift, VII, 1919, pp. 248-262. – R. Schmidt, “Deutsche Hochschnittpokale” in Weltkunst, XIX, 1949, H.8, pp. 2-3. - B. Klesse & H. Mayr. European Glass from 1500-1800. The Ernesto Wolf Collection. Vienna, 1987, n° 102. Friedrich Winter founded his workshop in 1687 in Silesia under the protection of Count Christof Leopold von Schaffgotsch, for whom he held the prestigious position ‘glass cutter and stone polisher' to the court. He was famous for his glasses cut using the "Hochschnitt" technique, produced using a hydraulic mill that was specially installed between 1690 and 1691 in Petersdorf. In 1931, Robert Schmidt (cf. Klesse & Mayr, cat. 102) pointed out that Winter had carved a shell for Count von Schaffgotsch, based on an example on loan from the imperial collection (cf. Seydel, p. 253). He also mentioned a similar shell, formerly in the Schlossmuseum in Berlin (without foot), which is stylistically very similar to ours and to the smoked topaz shell in the Ernesto Wolf collection at the Landesmuseum Württemberg in Stuttgart (Klesse & Mayr, cat. 102). Schmidt also refers to a rock-crystal bowl in the Schlossmuseum, destroyed during the last war, which he says originally belonged to Count von Schaffgotsch and bears strong similarities to Friedrich Winter's glass beakers (Schmidt, p.2).