Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone

Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 51. The Crucifixion (Round) (Bartsch 23; Meder, Hollstein 24; Schoch, Mende, Scherbaum 90).

Albrecht Dürer

The Crucifixion (Round) (Bartsch 23; Meder, Hollstein 24; Schoch, Mende, Scherbaum 90)

Margin Scheme

Lot closes

July 7, 12:51 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 25,000 GBP

Current Bid

16,000 GBP

2 Bids

Reserve met

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Lot Details

Description

Albrecht Dürer

1471 - 1528

The Crucifixion (Round) (Bartsch 23; Meder, Hollstein 24; Schoch, Mende, Scherbaum 90)


engraving on laid paper; together with an impression of Hollstein copy A

circa 1519

a fine, bright impression of this highly scarce, petite print, the first state (of two)

diameter (each): 37 mm. 1½ in.

(2 prints)

Sotheby's London, Old Master, 19th & 20th Century and Contemporary Prints, 25 June 1996, Lot 37 (£27,600)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

This engraving is amongst the rarest of Dürer’s prints. In a letter of 1520 to Georg Spalatin, advisor to Frederick the Wise of Saxony, Dürer said that he had sent ‘two impressions of a small Crucifixion engraved in gold’. This presumably referred to a small decorative object, perhaps intended for the pommel of a sword, from which Dürer had a few impressions printed before it was set into the object. According to an old tradition such a sword was made for the Emperor Maximilian.

 

This impression was purchased at Sotheby’s London in 1996 (£27,600), and the subject has not appeared at auction since.