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Masterpieces from Hungary or Transylvania, scattered in the museums of the world from the period of Ottoman-Hungarian wars...
Belt, early 17th century, with later additions
(Metropolitan Museum)
Maker: Simon Henek (active 1609–29)
Date: early 17th century, with later additions
Culture: Transylvanian-Saxon, Brassó (Brasov, Kronstadt)
Medium: Gilded silver, turquoise, glass pastes, silk velvet, metal threads
Dimensions :Overall: 33 1/16 in. (84 cm)
Classification: Metalwork-Silver
Credit Line: Gift of The Salgo Trust for Education, New York, in memory of Nicolas M. Salgo, 2010
Belts were showpieces, and though not worn every day, they might suffer over time due to the fragility of the textiles and delicate goldsmith work on them. Thus six of the rosettes in this example are nineteenth-century replacements. It is not clear if the silk velvet fabric with its gold-wrapped threads is original. When new, the ground of the buckles was covered with blue enamel to set off the pierced architectural arcade motifs with incorporated figural reliefs.
Literature
Tihamér Gyárfás. A brassai ötvösség története. Brassó, 1912, p. 101, no. 136.
Gold Boxes, Objects of Vertu and European Silver. Sale cat., Sotheby’s, London, July 6, 1981, p. 42, no. 162.
Judit H. Kolba. Hungarian Silver: The Nicolas M. Salgo Collection. London, 1996, p. 37, no. 13.
References
Elemér Kőszeghy. Magyarországi ötvösjegyek a középkortól 1867-ig / Merkzeichen der Goldschmiede Ungarns vom Mittelalter bis 1867. Budapest, 1936, no. 186 [maker’s mark].
[Wolfram Koeppe 2015]