Turned ivory masterwork as a standish (encrier)

Johann Eisenberg (ca 1600– after 1656), circle of
South German, probably Gotha, ca 1620
Ivory, turned
Height ca 32.5 cm, diameter at the foot ca 5.5 cm

Provenance: UK, private collection

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Made at the lathe from a single piece of ivory, this stunning masterwork is distinguished by its unusual overall form and the elaborate turned patterns decorating it. What at first sight looks like a solid tower, is revealed on closer scrutiny as an utterly exquisite standish (encrier or inkstand), a library set composed of ten interconnecting individual elements, all of which unscrew. The base is an emphatically moulded round box with a foot-ring, above which rises a column resting on three small ball feet. The decilobate base of the column merges into a cylindrical, tapering wall that is decorated with wickerwork patterns. The finial is a moulded sphere with a pinnacle. Threads turned to fit precisely are worked into all ten detachable elements. The foot plate screws off. Above it is a sand box lined with a sieve, a cover at the bottom and a screw lid, followed, in ascending order by an inkwell with a lid, the hollow column with a stopper at the base to make it a repository for a quill and penknife, then the lower and upper half of the surmounting sphere, which form a small box, topped off by a pinnacle. This masterwork is highly unlikely to have ever been used as a standish. It is, first and foremost, a very precious and fragile Kunstkammer object that was most probably made for a royal collector and was never used for a practical purpose. At least the handful of comparable objects extant are in museums housing collections of royal provenance, such as the Kunstkammer at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Royal Danish Treasury at Rosenborg Castle and even the Green Vault in Dresden. Worth mentioning in this connection is also an ivory standish in the Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, which is virtually identical with the present piece in form and decoration.