Lot 97: Pieter Gerritsz. van Roestraeten Haarlem 1630 - 1700 London , a still life with a silver ginger jar, a violin, a pearl necklace, a recorder, music sheets, a silver porringer, a book, a globe, a gilt candlestick, a glass, a porcelain bowl, a pipe, a

oil on canvas

measurements note 70 by 81.7 cm.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Pieter Gerritsz. van Roestraten was a pupil of Frans Hals, whose daughter he married in Amsterdam in 1654. He must have been in London little more than a decade later however, since Arnold Houbraken recorded that Roestraten suffered a hip injury during the Great Fire in London of 1666. He is best-known for his carefully composed and highly finished still lifes of silver objects, sometimes with trompe-l'oeil overtones.

The different silver objects in this still life suggest that it was painted after van Roestraeten moved to London. To the far left, a remarkable example of an English Charles II porringer reveals its four silver maker's marks. Although the silver marks are hard to read, the LeopardÂ?s head town mark of London can be clearly observed (fourth mark). A painting by van Roestraeten with a similar porringer was sold, New York, Sotheby's, 18 May 2006, lot 87 (see fig. 1). The centre piece, an English silver ginger jar, is a beautiful example of which similar ones can be traced back in several other still lifes by van Roestraeten, for example on a work in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. SK-A-4189). Usually made in sets of three or five, it could be dated to the third quarter of the 17th Century and has been inspired by Dutch models based upon the shape of Chinese porcelain ginger jars (see fig. 2).