Dutch Colonial Metalwork

A rare, Dutch Colonial, Batavian (now Jakarta) Dutch East Indies silver and tortoise shell Sirih casket, circa 1750. The casket was used for storing highly prized betel nut, which was chewed ritually by high ranking Indonesian officials and adopted by settlers from the Dutch East Indies Company...

A splendid and heavy Dutch-colonial silver filigree salver Indonesia, Batavia (Jakarta) or possibly Padang, West Sumatra, 2nd half 17th century Diam. 22.9 cm Weight 551 grams This filigree-work was probably done by Chinese masters...

An unusual Indonesian lobbed silver dish Jakarta (Batavia) or Coromandel coast, third quarter 17th century, apparently unmarked The eight lobbed dish exuberantly decorated with floral motifs, with the middle section replaced, consisting of indistinctly marked German silver from the early 19th century, bearing the coat-of-arms of the Von Pfeffel family. Diam. 30.5 cm Weight 461 grams Note: Lobbed silver dishes with exuberant floral decorations were characteristic of the decorative arts in the Netherlands in the first half of the 17th century. This style of floral decoration was adopted by silversmiths as well as by furniture makers working on the Coromandel Coast and in Batavia, often by workers who had fled the Coromandel Coast because of war and famine. In Batavia this style was known as “Custwerck” (work from the Bengal coast). These lobbed dishes are seldom marked. Only after 1667 the use of the town mark became obligatory in Batavia but only for silver made in Batavia not for silver imported in Batavia from other VOC settlements. The engraved coat of arms in the centre is a replacement of the original centre. The coat of arms can be identified as those of Christian Hubert von Pfeffel (1765- 1834). As a diplomat, statesman, ambassador of Bavaria in London and Saxony and councillor to the King of Bavaria, he was made “Freiherr” in 1828 and since then used this coat of arms. His son Karl Maximilian Friederich Hubert Freiherr von Pfeffel (1811-1890) in 1836 married Karoline Adelheid Pauline von Rottenburg (1805-1872), the natural daughter of Prins Paul von Württemberg (1785-1852) and his mistress Margrethe Porth. Paul was the jounger brother of the King Wilhelm I of Württemberg (1781-1864). The heraldic motto of the von Pfeffels Vur Schande habe den Huot means as much as “Beware of Shame”. Christian Hubert Theodoor Marie Karl von Pfeffel Karl Maximilian’s grandson was the last male in the von Pfeffel line. His daughter, Marie Louise (Paris in 1882 - Cornwall 1944), born and grown-up in France, changed her name in de Pfeffel. She was the great grandmother of Boris Alexander de Pfeffel Johnson, the present British Secretary of State. None of the members of the von Pfeffel family had any direct links with the Dutch East Indies but indirectly by way of the Royal House of Württemberg they did. Sophia Frederika Mathilda von Württemberg (1818-1877), daughter of Wilhelm I King of Württemberg, in 1839 married Willem III...