Agate bowl and case

Description

This sexfoil bowl and 18 similar extant objects are the work of the Stuttgart gem cutter Johann Georg Kobenhaupt (died 1623). They are cut from local or oriental jasper and agate and rank in quality with those produced in the imperial workshops of Rudolf II in Prague. The desirability of Kobenhaupt's work is indicated by the rank of those who collected it: comparable pieces are in the former princely collections in Copenhagen, Paris, Vienna, Munich, Dresden and Stuttgart. This example is very close to beakers in the Louvre and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in respect of the ring below the bowl of white, green and red enamel with three dolphins and a garland of upright leaves. The bowl entered the Faesch collection probably after 1648 either as a gift or as an exchange from the French coin expert Charles Patin (1633-1693). Patin did business at the court of Duke Eberhardt III of Württemberg and was a friend of Sebastian Faesch.