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Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
JAN VAN DE VELDE II (AFTER PIETER DE MOLIJN) The Star of the Kings.
Engraving, circa 1616. 214x165 mm; 8½x6½ inches, thread margins. Second state (of 2). Crowned coat-of-arms watermark. A superb and early impression of this very scarce engraving, with little to no sign of wear.
According to the Art Institute of Chicago, where there is another impression of this engraving, "Here Jan van de Velde the Younger [circa 1593-1641] engraved the earliest known print of so-called star-singers on Twelfth Night. This secular celebration mimicked the journey of the Three Magi, or kings, who followed the miraculous star of Bethlehem to the infant Christ. Popular in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, this Epiphany festival, held on January 6, grew beyond the church. It consisted of two parts: an indoor family feast crowning a king chosen by lottery, and a nighttime parade of singers carrying a candle-lit star from door to door. Unlike the generous Magi, the singers demanded gifts as they progressed, illuminated by their glowing paper star."
Provenance: Dr. Julius Hofmann, Vienna, with the ink stamp verso (Lugt 1264); Henry Harper Benedict, New York (Lugt 1298); Oswald Stein, with the black ink stamp verso (not in Lugt). Hollstein 149.
