422 - Gustav Friedrich Gerich

Gustav Friedrich Gerich An important Augsburg Empire silver tureen on stand Circular, slightly domed stand with chased acanthus between framed cartouches of scrolling foliage; on four pilaster feet. The large urn-shaped tureen with opposing cast and exceptionally finely chased ibex heads; the smooth body with a frieze of scrolling acanthus tendrils and a surrounding beaded border at the upper edge. The domed cover with corresponding decoration and a large baluster finial. With gilt interior. Overall height 38.5 cm; diameter of the stand 30.5 cm; total weight 4,404 g. Marks of Gustav Friedrich Gerich, around 1806/08. This tureen and présentoir do not bear the Augsburg Pyr, the guarantee mark for 13-loth silver, but instead the stamp “15” for 15-loth silver (938/000). Augsburg silverware of this higher fineness, known as “French silver”, was usually produced for court commissions and is consequently comparatively rare today. Gustav Friedrich Gerich, one of the most accomplished Augsburg silversmiths of his time, did in fact receive numerous princely commissions, certainly through the mediation of Augsburg silver dealers. Seling mentions, among other works, components from a silver table service for Princess Therese of Thurn und Taxis and two tureens for the Grand Dukes of Saxe-Altenburg. Provenance In the 19th century in the possession of the Baden-Alsatian barons Gayling von Altheim; German aristocratic ownership, acquired in 2012. Literature This tureen illustrated in cat. Glückliche Momente, Maximilianmuseum Augsburg, 2016/17, cat. no. 43, pp. 197 ff. A comparable Gerich tureen sold at Sotheby’s Paris, 15 April 2010, lot 145. See also a pair of sauce boats for the Counts of Walderdorff, likewise 15-loth and apparently from the same service as our tureen, sold at Sotheby’s London, 7 June 2005, lot 82.