18th-Century Bear Fountain Sparks Bidding War
Originating in the folk art traditions of Nottingham, a bear-shaped fountain acquired its letters of nobility as a precious fountain.
Result: €214,140
The object had all the makings of being the most attractive at this auction dedicated to curiosities and the Late Middle Ages. And the bidders fought long and hard before one of them managed to win the bear for the substantial sum of €214,140, more than twenty times the starting bid. Its story begins in the kilns of Nottingham, where stoneware was fired to serve as wine or beer jugs. These vessels drew inspiration from the terrible sport of bear-baiting, which so fascinated Tudor England, featuring a chained bear holding a dog, which it would essentially hug to death — at the start the animal was goaded with burning coals to make it even more angry. Grégoire de Toury, a specialist at the auction house, provided these details, pointing out that the Victoria and Albert Museum has a copy extremely close to this one. Here, the bear’s head is removable and takes the form of a goblet. Its originality is enhanced by a chased and gilded bronze frame, perfectly adapted to the animal’s morphology and unmistakably the result of a special commission, which could only have come from a powerful man. It was made either in France or Germany around 1745, transforming an ordinary vessel into a precious table ‘fountain’ designed to impress guests. There was nothing around to compete with this fighting bear, with everyone keeping a respectable distance from its claws. Nevertheless, if the enamelled gold pendant probably made in Nuremberg in the second half of the 16th century did not sell, there was nothing to be ashamed of. An oratory for private devotion in carved and painted wood, a Spanish work from the late 16th century (154.2 x 83.5 x 42 cm/60.70 x 32.87 x 16.53 in), and a zulaque chest — a particular technique featuring inlay and sgraffito in which the traces of the incisions of the decorative motifs are filled with zulaque, a putty or paste of black color — in marquetry of exotic woods (71.2 x 106 x 61 cm/28.03 x 41.73 x 24.01 in), made in the Oaxaca region of Mexico in the early 17th century, ended the game with an equal score of €13,000.
Thursday 19 December 2024 – 14:30 (CET) – Live
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