Lot 171: A fine Dutch stipple-engraved wine glass with portrait of Henrik Hooft Danielszn circa 1780-98

circa 1780-98
Attributed to David Wolff, the ogee bowl decorated with a bust portrait of a man wearing a wig, flanked by tied branches of laurel and oak below, inscribed HENRIK HOOFT Danielsz. BURGMEESTER der Stad AMSTERDAM., the stem cut with hexagonal facets over a conical foot, together with a steel-engraving bearing the same portrait, probably after Pothoven, the glass 16.1cm high (2)

Provenance: The Anton Vecht Collection, Amsterdam

Eleven wine glasses bearing similar portraits of Hooft and the same or similar inscriptions are listed by Smit, all attributed to David Wolff. The present lot, however, is the only example with a cup-shaped bowl and is listed by Smit (1993), p.82, no.Cd.17. The portrait is probably a copy of a drawing by H. Pothoven, engraved by R. Vinkeles and C. Bogerts. Two wine glasses in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, bearing this identical portrait attributed to Wolff, are illustrated by Ritsema van Eck (1995), pp.446-447, nos.563 and 564.

Henrik Hooft Danielsz. (1716-94) was a successful Amsterdam merchant and banker. He held many public offices in Amsterdam and was burgomaster (Mayor) on seven occasions. Hooft was one of the leaders of the Patriots and opposed to the House of Orange. When Prussian troops invaded Amsterdam in 1787 he fled to France, together with other Patriots, returning to the Netherlands in 1790.