The Writing Box of William III of Orange.

 The Writing Box of William III of Orange.

Hermitage, St Petersburg.

I shall return to the subject of this key object in due course.

Probably one of the most important pieces in the Hermitage Collection of Silver Filigree.

This is where I am going to disagree with the accepted attribution of Goa or Batavia - my opinion is that it is most likely North European. There are several caskets which exhibit the same style and the same basic techniques such as the casket in the Grunes Gewolbe in Dresden.

Transferred from the State Service Cabinet in the Winter Palace to the Hermitage in 1789.

Width 31 cms x depth 27 cms x height 13 cms.

An inventory was taken in 1856 by B Kohne stating that the silver seal with engraved Prussian Eagle belonged to the inkpot passed from the estate of Frederick I king of Prussia who had given it to Tsar Peter I (Peter the Great). 

An inventory of the gold and silver belonging to Frederick I son of Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenberg includes a filigree Schreibkasten with the Arms (date?? info from the Hermitage Catalogue)

Peter the Great was the guest of Frederick William I (1688 - 1740) son of Frederick I of Prussia in November in Prussis in November 1717 when he was given the panels of the "Amber Room" possibly he received the writing box at the same time.

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see - Silver Wonders from the East, Filigree of the Tsars, Catalogue from the Hermitage Amsterdam pub Lund Humphries in association with Hermitage Amsterdam. 2006

This the first in depth modern Catalogue to deal with the subject of Silver filigree work of the 17th and 18th Centuries.

This extremely useful catalogue should be read with extreme caution and my posts are an attempt to update the information within it and to make better comparisons.

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The Coat of Arms of Guillaume Henri, the Prince of Orange (1650 - 1702) Stadtholder of the Netherlands from 1672, soon to become in 1689 the future King William III of England on the lid date the box from between 1672 and 1689 when he Stadtholder and not yet King of England.

On the base of the box is the monogram of Guillaume Henri Prince d'Orange. (William III Hendrik).

Unfortunately these are the best images currently available - I will endeavour to obtain better in the future.

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The Grunes Gewolbe, Dresden, Silver filigree Casket.

I suggest that this and other caskets with similar work all came from the same group of Northern European craftsmen.
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Another Silver Filigree Casket in the Hermitage.

Again another very poor and unhelpful image from the Hermitage website.