Live Auction 13873Old Masters
A GERMAN BIBLICAL TAPESTRY
Lot 17 PROPERTY OF A PHILADELPHIA COLLECTOR

A GERMAN BIBLICAL TAPESTRY

POSSIBLY SWABIA, CIRCA 1500

Closed27 April 2017

Price Realised

USD 68,750

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A GERMAN BIBLICAL TAPESTRY
POSSIBLY SWABIA, CIRCA 1500
Depicting the Virgin, crowned, in the center holding the child, at her proper left is St. John the Baptist holding the lamb and St. Scholastica the first Benedictine nun clasping a dove to her breast. On the Virgin's proper right is a Bishop Saint, probably St. Boniface and next to him St. Benedict as an Abbot. The background is decorated with delicate flowers such as lilies of the valley, thistle, a campanula, some botanical creations and ends in a graduating shade of blue
69 in. (175.2 cm.) x 37 in. (94 cm.)

With Arnold Seligmann, Paris.
Purchased from the above circa 1926 by Isaac T. Starr (1867-1930), Laverock Hill, Pennsylvania.
Thence by descent.

Specialist note

Made to adorn a Benedictine altar this rare antependium is closely related to an example in the MAK Museum in Vienna depicting Virgin and Saints. The example in Vienna is dated 1502 and attributed to the workshops of Swabia. Both tapestries are closely related in design and in coloring and are likely to have been woven in the same workshop as was suggested in the Arts Club of Chicago catalogue of 1926. The charm and naïveté of this tapestry is typical of German production. The colors, although bearing the traces of time are still remarkably vivid.

The tapestry was acquired by Isaac T. Starr (1867-1930) who ran his family's brokerage firm Starr & Co. with offices in Philadelphia.

Perhaps it is the delicate flora that appealed to Isaac T. Starr when he bought the tapestry for his residence, Laverock Hill, renowned for its outstanding garden. Indeed, the property was remodeled by Charles A. Platt and Ellen Shipman, the celebrated architect and landscape designer, and the gardens were featured in Portraits of the Philadelphia Gardens in 1929.