?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000
ALBRECHT DÜRER Coat of Arms with a Lion and a Cock.
Engraving, circa 1503. 185x120 mm; 7 1/4x4 3/4 inches, thread margins. A brilliant, dark, richly-inked Meder a impression with very strong contrasts, with the delicate horizontal scratches lower left and with no sign of wear, consistent with the earliest impressions of this engraving. High crown watermark (Meder 20, which he dates from 1480 to 1525).
Dürer's (1471-1528) first engraved coat-of-arms; he made one other in addition to several woodcuts like this subject. This arms was likely not intended for a specific family, but rather a creation of pure fantasy by Dürer; the elaborate foliage and additional details allowing him to display his virtuoso engraving skills.
Provenance: Count Antoine Seilern (1901-1978), Surrey and London; his sale Christie's, London, July 8, 1998, lot 24; August Laube & Co., Zurich, with their stock number in pencil, verso; Samuel Josefowitz, Pully; his sale Christie's, New York, January 29, 2013, lot 29. Bartsch 100; Meder 97.
