Coconut Cup with Silver Gilt Mounts

Provenance

(Louis Alexander Ricard-Abenheimer, Frankfurt am Main); acquired by 1906 by Albert [1862-1912] and Hedwig [1872-1945] Ullmann, Frankfurt am Main;[1] by descent to their son Henry A. and his wife Elinor Ullin, Melbourne;[2] sale, 9 May 1974, Sotheby’s London, no. 165;[3] L. Scott;[4] sale, 19-20 May 1997, Sotheby’s, Geneva, no. 187; Belgian private collection; acquired 2023 by Galerie Kugel, Paris; purchased 2024 by NGA. [1] The notebook in which the Ullmanns recorded their purchases (kept in the private archive of their descendants) lists the coconut cup with its now-lost lid on page 15. See Maike Brüggen, _Kunst in der Krise. Die Sammlung Hedwig und Albert Ullmann und der Frankfurter Kunstmarkt im Spiegel des Ersten Weltkriegs_, Ph.D. dissertation, Technische Universität Berlin, 2021: 192, n. 810. [2] Having fled Frankfurt in the wake of Nazi persecution, Hedwig Ullmann immigrated with her two sons and their families in 1939 to Australia, where they changed their surname to Ullin. See Brüggen (note 1), pp. 82-83. While they left behind most of their collection, the cup traveled with them. [3] The cup was paired with a lid, current whereabouts unknown, in the sale catalogue, which identifies the cup as the property of H.A. and E. Ullin of Melbourne. [4] See Sotheby's list of buyers's names from the 1974 sale, copy in NGA curatorial records.

Coconut Cup with Silver Gilt Mounts

Netherlandish 16th Century

c. 1540

Accession Number

2024.125.1

Medium

coconut mounted in gilded silver

Dimensions

height: 17.78 cm (7 in.) | diameter: 8.89 cm (3 1/2 in.)

Classification

Decorative Art

Museum

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

Credit Line

Gift of Funds from Marina French and Jacqueline B. Mars in honor of Eric L. Motley