Follower of Frans Snyders

Kipley House, Devon, The Bastard Family.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas has been lined, this is old and has degraded and there is a loss of tension. The paint layer is unstable and raised with recent loss. The old restorations to the upper left and right corners and down through the left hand edge, including the face of the figure, have degraded. Further minor losses across the surface can be detected scattered across the surface, some of them have been touched out. Generally in a well preserved original condition. The paint texture and the impasto are intact and the glazes appear uncompromised. The varnish is very degraded and discoloured."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This is a direct copy, with minor differences, of a work by Frans Snyders known in several versions, one of which was sold Monaco, Sotheby's, 20 June 1987, lot 354. Snyders used the basic composition in several other works, although he arranged the dead game a little differently; see, for example, the canvas in the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.¹


1. See H. Robels, Frans Snyders, Munich 1989, p. 214, no. 51, reproduced p. 52.