Live Auction 7375The Genius of the German Renaissance: Prints by Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Lot 38

Albrecht Dürer

A Coat of Arms with a Lion and a Cock (B. 100; M., Holl. 97; S.M.S. 35)

Closed4 December 2007

Price Realised

GBP 8,750

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Albrecht Dürer
A Coat of Arms with a Lion and a Cock (B. 100; M., Holl. 97; S.M.S. 35)
engraving, circa 1500, a good, clear Meder b impression, without watermark, trimmed just inside the platemark but retaining a fillet of blank paper outside the borderline, a tiny short repaired tear at the lower right corner, otherwise in very good condition
S. 187 x 121 mm.

L. Galichon (L. 1060).
P. Gervaise, 1860 (L. 1078).
J. Marshall (L. 1494).
A. Firmin-Didot (L. 119); probably Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16 April - 12 May 1877, lot 265.
F. Somary (his stamp verso, not in Lugt).

Specialist note

Attempts to identify this coat of arms and link it to a particular family have failed and so we assume it is an invention, although its various elements, the shield with the rampant lion, the helmet, the scrollwork and the cock do comply with the heraldic tradition. Dürer may have created it in order to attract commissions for similar designs. The scrollwork and the shining helmet also gave him the opportunity to display his technical skills as an engraver, shown to even greater effect in The Coat of Arms with a Skull (lot 60).