A ‘Facon de Venise’ Flute-Glass signed and dated 1662

Engraved by the Monogrammist M
Signed and dates ‘fc M’ and dated ‘1662’ On the bowl

Glass Diamond point engraving With later silver repair between bowl and stem
H. 44 cm. D. 6,3 cm. (bowl) D. 10,8 cm. (foot)

PROVENANCE
Collection D. Bingham | New York
Collection A. J. Guépin (1897-1964) | The Netherlands
With Frides Laméris | Amsterdam | 1969
Sale Christie’s | Amsterdam | The Guépin Collection of 17th and 18th Century Dutch Glass | 5 July 1989 | Lot 39
With Frides Laméris | Amsterdam | 2014
Private collection | The Netherlands

EXHIBITION
21e Oude Kunst- en Antiekbeurs | Prinsenhof | Delft | 1969 | Nr. 59

LITERATURE
Gelder, H. E. van (1958). De Rotterdamse glas-graveur Marinus van Gelder en zijn tijdgenoten. In: Bulletin Museum Boymans-van Beuningen 9, p. 58, fig. 14
Braat, W. C. (1962). Collections de verres des Pays-Bas. In: Bulletin des Journées Internationales du Verre. 1, p. 34
Neeve, B. R. M. de (1964). Dutch engraved glass in the A. J. Guépin collection. In: Apollo 80 (33), p. 282, figs. 4-5
Wanroij, F. van (2025). Glas van voor- en tegenspoed Fortuna en een ‘voor-de-wind-gaande’ driemaster. In: Vind nr. 57, pp. 78-83, with ill.

REFERENCE LITERATURE
Klesse, B. (1996). Zum Diamantreisser ‘M’. Ein unbekanntes Meisterwerk. In Weltkunst, nr. 17, pp. 1974-1977
Pijzel-Dommisse, J. & Eliëns, T.M. (2009). Glinsterend glas. 1500 Jaar Europese Glinsterend glas. 1500 Jaar Europese glaskunst. De collectie van het Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Zwolle: Waanders/Den Haag: Gemeentemuseum, p. 152

CATALOGUE NOTE
This elegant and imposing Façon de Venise signed and dated flute glass is embellished with a fine and very interesting diamond engraving. Engraving as a decorative technic within glass gained importance during the 17th century. A separation between the manufacture of the glass on the one hand and the application of decorations on the other arose. In the course of the 17th century, finished glasses were increasingly decorated by specialized artists, who applied the engravings supposedly ‘cold’. Of the engraving techniques on glass, diamond engraving in particular flourished, especially in the Northern Netherlands. This decoration technique was not only practised by professional engravers, but also by well-to-do amateur artists who practice ‘artful writing on glass‘ as a pleasant activity. The diamond point engraving of the present flute glass is by an anonymous Northern Dutch master known as the ‘Monogrammist M’ or the ‘Master CM’, of whose hand only thirteen glasses are known. Nine of them are in museum collections, three of which are in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This flute is monogrammed and dated ‘1662‘. It is not known who the Master CM was. This name is derived from the monogram, where an intertwined ‘C’ and ‘f’ are followed by a capital ‘M’. In literature, the signature is sometimes read as ‘fecit M‘, i.e. as ‘manufactured by M’. The engravings by this anonymous master are dated between 1644 and 1663, usually based on prints. The engravings on the three glasses in the Rijksmuseum are based on prints by Theodor de Bry (1528-1598), Anthonie Heeres Siverdtsma (1625-after 1662) and Jacob Matham (1571-1631).

A nude woman balances on her left leg on a ball. In the hand of her outstretched right arm she holds the end of a sail, the lower end of which she holds in in a bow in her left hand. This figure represents Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fate, who brings both good luck and bad luck. She is depicted here as the Mistress of the Sea, feared by seafarers. Similar to her Greek counterpart Tyche, she is depicted here with wings. The ball or sphere on which she stands symbolizes her instability. In addition, the course that a ball takes is unpredictable, referring to probability. Fortuna is frequently employed in the visual artistic language of the 17th century. Due to the influential Consolatione Philosophiae (‘On the Consolation of Philosophy’) by the late Roman philosopher and writer Boethius (circa 480-525), which for centuries exerted a great influence on thinking about notions like Fate, Providence and Predestination, Fortuna remained a popular literary and iconographic theme in the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. On the reverse of the cuppa a three-masted ship is depicted, the middle mast of which has been lowered. The sail of the foremast and a small sail on the aftdeck are bulging due to the wind. The engraving on this flute was – in combination with the dating – formerly interpreted as referring to an agreement between the Republic and England or to herring fishing. However, the depiction of Fortuna follows a design drawing dating from around 1575-1580 from the series Parvus Mundus by Jan Snellinck (circa 1548-1638), kept in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (inv.nr. RP-T-1889-A-1913; see fig. 3). This series was published in 1579 by Gerard de Jode (1509-1591) under the title Mikrokosmos. This book was the inspiration for the 74 emblematic prints accompanying the poem ‘Toonneel des Menschelyken Levens’ by Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) published in 1613. The literary genre of the emblemata-books was developed in the 16th century and was particularly popular in the Netherlands during the 17th century. The emblems – woodcuts or engravings – were accompanied by a saying or short text. Both text and image teach the reader moral, religious and aesthetic lessons. In addition to Joost van den Vondel, Pieter C. Hooft (Emblemata Amatoria) and Jacob Cats (Sinne- en Minnebeelden) also published emblemata books with moral lessons. The combination of Fortuna with a sail and a ship was not uncommon in the Netherlands in the 17th century, as demonstrated by a sandstone gable stone attributed to the workshop of Hendrick de Keyser in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inv.nr. IBK-NM-10513). Van den Vondel’s caption in his ‘Toonneel des Menschelyken Levens‘ reads: ‘Aenmerckt hoe d’ Avonthuur de huyck hanght naer de winden, En niet met allen vraeght naer vyanden, noch vrinden’. In this line of poetry, ‘de huyck naer de wind hanging‘ literally means letting the sail blow with the wind, or going with everything. Below the emblem Psalm 19 is printed: ‘Mijn toevlucht is alleen den Heere der heerscharen, Geen quaed, noch ongeval, en kan my wedervaren‘ (‘My refuge is only the Lord. No evil nor misfortune can befall me’).

Emblems were widely known in the 17th century and their moralistic messages were also recognized. The often tense relationship between individual human actor-ship and the absolute power of higher abstract authorities is an important theme in Dutch literature of the 17th century. The lesson seems to be that man usually loses to these higher powers. This touches on the important theological question of the limits of human self-determination.