Platter - Pewter - engraved bronze dish

Rare hand-raised and chased decorative platter in lead/pewter – “The Spies of Canaan”

Northern Netherlands or Westphalia, second half of the 17th century / early 18th century

Description: An unusual, heavy wall or model platter (pattern plate), entirely hand-raised over a pitch bed, punched and chased from lead sheet (or a high-lead tin alloy).

The deep central well features a richly raised relief depicting the Old Testament story of the Spies of Canaan (Numbers 13:23): Joshua and Caleb return from the Valley of Eshcol with a giant bunch of grapes carried on a pole across their shoulders. In keeping with the spirit of 17th-century Dutch folk art, the biblical figures are dressed in contemporary 17th-century clothing (doublet, breeches and broad-brimmed hat), and the leading spy, leaning on his staff, smokes a Dutch clay pipe. Beneath their feet is a richly chased oak branch with leaves and acorns on a smooth ground; above the sharply defined horizon, the background (sky) is stippled with a waffle punch and features a radiant sun or crescent moon.

The broad, flat rim is decorated with a cold-struck chain motif of beaded ovals and lozenges, interspersed with stamped double-dot circles (eye motifs). The reverse is fitted with a soldered brass hanging loop.

Technical background: Whereas this type of raised decorative platter was usually made in brass, this is a rare hand-raised example in soft lead metal. In 17th- and 18th-century workshops, such lead sheets were raised as durable, three-dimensional workshop models (pattern plates) or trial pieces, because lead could be hammered into high relief over a pitch bed without intermediate annealing. As lead, unlike brass, has not been polished with abrasives for centuries, the original chasing and punching marks remain exceptionally sharp beneath the dark grey lead patina.

Material: Hand-raised and chased lead / lead-tin

Diameter: 33.2 cm

Condition: Excellent, authentic condition, with an attractive, untouched dark grey age patina and exceptionally sharp, well-preserved chasing. Small old nick to the rim.