The porcelain bowl with a simple floral scroll on the exterior and with flowering lotus reserved on a blue ground in the interior. A very similar bowl in the British Museum has the six-character reign mark of the Wanli Emperor (reigned 1572 – 1620), our bowl may be similarly marked but we have not removed the mount to check.[i]
The silver-gilt mounts comprise elaborate handles of interlaced C-scrolls with dragon head finials joined with hinges to the cylindrical foot with two bands of inscription. ‘Envi’ (as opposed to ‘envie’) comes from old French where it meant challenge or rivalry. The motto, ‘envi sans envi’ can perhaps be read as ‘rivalry without envy’, ‘B de B’ is in reference to her title, Baronesse de Braubach.
Wiltz is a town in northwest Luxembourg in the canton of the same name which lies near the border with Wallonia. The town, presided over by the castle of the Barons, and later the Comtes de Wiltz since the 13th century, suffered numerous conflicts being at a crossroads of Europe. Anne Marguerite was the daughter of Johann von Wiltz (1535 – 1607).
Anne Marguerite de Wiltz married Baron Wilhelm Marzloff von Braubach in 1590, becoming the Baronesse de Braubach (being from Luxembourg, and presumably a native French speaker, she evidently wrote it in French), bringing with her a large fortune of her own. The Baron von Braubach trained as a lawyer and in 1591, became co-president of the assizes of Vaudrevange. He conducted several witchcraft trials for which he had a reputation for being intractable. He handed down numerous sentences where the condemned were “… executed by fire” or “… reduced to ashes”.
Around 1600, Anne Marguerite and her husband transformed the old castle of Dillingen in Swabia, Bavaria, razing part of the old fortress and had a splendid Renaissance-style building built there in its place, part of which still exists today.
They also acquired the lordship of Fremersdorff (a district of the current city of Rehlingen-Siersburg in Saarland) where they had a castle built. Its construction lasted from 1613 to 1622; a chapel was added in 1629 and they settled there permanently. In 1621, he had also become Baron of Fremersdorff.
Ultimately, things seem to have gone downhill for them. In 1622, Wilhelm sold the lordships of Hellimer, Diffembach and Ackerbach to Baron Georges Du Gaillard, then captain of the castle of Albestroff. Wilhelm died in his castle in Fremersdorff in 1633; we do not know when Anne Marguerite died.
The elaborate handles are close to examples found on silver-mounted Ming bowls in the Munich Residenz and so are presumably German. The cylindrical foot is most unusual and exceptional in being inscribed with the name of the owner and the date.
Anne Marguerite de Wiltz was a relation of Count Eberhart von Manderscheidt who bought the famous cup Manderscheidt cup, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Count Eberhart von Manderscheidt bought his cup in Turkey in 1583 and subsequently had it mounted in honour of his brother, Count Herman.
The von Manderscheid cup, Victoria and Albert Museum, M-16, 1970
The date of 1607 of the mounts on our cup place it at a turning point in the European engagement with Chinese porcelain. Before this time specimens of Chinese porcelain were rare and treasured having come either overland via the laborious Silk Route or in the boats of Arab traders up the Red Sea. Even simple examples were deemed worthy of elaborate mounting. By the early 17th century, the new maritime routes openned up and the Portuguese and Dutch brought over ever-increasing quantities of blue and white porcelain. Notable events were the public auctions in 1602 and 1604 in Holland of the huge cargoes of Chinese porcelain from the Portuguese ‘carracks’ or merchant vessels the Santa Catarina and San Yago seized by the Dutch. After this time Chinese porcelain became almost commonplace.
Condition:
A 5 cm hairline crack close to one handle, some tarnish in places
Provenance:
Collection of Maître Dominique Fromentin, Paris
References:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Marzloff_de_Braubach
https://gw.geneanet.org/frebault?lang=en&n=von+wiltz&p=anna+margareta
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[i] We are grateful to Patricia Ferguson for pointing out this similar example: BM registration no. 1973,0726.373 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1973-0726-373
Price: £38,000
