A Palatian engraved gilt copper dish
A flat dish with a slightly concave border and flared rim. Decorated to the centre with the Wittelsbach coat of arms, surrounded by four cartouches with Old Testament and mythological decor, decorated to the spandrels with grotesque mascarons and figures amid tendrils, bordered by a chain ornament. The border with four mascarons holding foliage. Engraved to the centre with a house mark and the initials "ZFS" to the underside, with additional later engravings. The gold of the centre worn. H 5.1, D 38.5 cm.
The copper presumably Tyrolese, probably worked in the Lower Rhine Region or Netherlands, after 1614.
The Wittelsbach coat of arms forms the central motif of this unusual object. The reverse bears an unidentified engraved signature, which suggests an allocation to the Lower Rhine Region or further north. We presume the work to be a commission for the Palatian court in Düsseldorf. There are numerous published examples of similar objects from the middle ages, for example the Hansa dish with depictions of vices in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg or the Superbia dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A similar, but earlier and smaller, dish from the 12th century was sold in Lempertz auction 1040 on 15th November 2014 as lot 1160. No other objects of this kind are known to exist from the early 17th century.