A GERMAN PARCEL-GILT SILVER-GILT SIDEBOARD-DISH

A similar example by the same maker sold, Collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Berge, Christie's, Paris, 24 February 2009, lot 182. A larger example also by Schwestermüller, chased with an allegorical scene representative of the four Continents was sold, Property of Richard and Lucille Jenkins, Christie's, New York, 23 October 2013, lot 141.

Schwestermüller was a leading goldsmith in the Augsburg guild who made silver furniture as well as other objects such as another, larger, sideboard dish, now in the Armoury Museum at the Kremlin. He is most famous for his magnificent silver table of 1659, with a central scene depicting the Judgement of Paris. In 1664, the Hapsburg rulers considered sending the table to the Ottoman Court a part of a tribute payment, but the subject was deemed inappropriate, and it was instead acquired by Count Paul Esterházy in 1665 (Catherine Arminjon, ed., Quand Versailles était meublé d'argent, 2007, fig. 169, pp. 175-177). Schwestermüller also made a pair of silver throne chairs for Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, now at Schloss Köpenick, Berlin.