Prague No. 2 / Praha

Late-Gothic baptismal font of pewter from a private collection auctioned off by Sotheby's described as: "[lot] 34: an important and rare late Gothic pewter baptismal font, probably by Master Wenzel Mrkviczka I, Prague, late 15th/early 16th century [...] Description: height 76 cm; the body shaped as a reversed bell, set with three portrait bust finials, above a moulded frieze with Gothic text band with a portrait roundel with bear mask and winged iron handles, above a further Gothic text band raised on three angular, curved legs decorated with bearded masks and on claw feet joined by an iron stretcher, each leg with a double mark probably for Wenzel Mrkviczka I [...] the indistinct double mark on the present lot probably applies to Wenzel Mrkviczka I (see: Tischer, op. cit. p.213). This master is mentioned in the archives between circa 1500 and 1523. The connection between the pewter and bell-founders guild is clearly discernable in the bell shape of the body of the present lot, a feature used repeatedly in all the baptismal fonts made by the Prague workshops. A comparable font dated 1485 can be found in the Bartholomew church in Kolin. Two fonts by Wenzel Mrkviczka I dating 1510 and 1518 (by description similar to the present lot) were recorded in the church in Pilgram and in the church of Skutsch." [http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2006/property-from-33-european-private-collections-paintings-furniture-and-works-of-art-am0971/lot.34.html] [accessed 24 September]