A very rare Dutch stipple-engraved goblet by J Wolff, circa 1760
The ovoid bowl delicately engraved with a tavern scene with features partially outlined in diamond-point, the scene depicting four figures around a wooden table, a man standing at one end lifting a jug of beer, his dog seated on the floor beside him looking up towards its master, a lady and a gentleman seated at the other end, he with a beaker raised in his hand, a man standing behind them smoking a pipe, all before a doorway and sparsely stippled foliage, set on a tapering multi-spiral airtwist stem set into a high domed foot, 18cm high
Footnotes:
J Wolff stippled in a very characteristic style in which the background is sparsely dotted and darker objects are left almost totally blank, meaning that they are typically delineated by an outline. The way in which the engraving on the present goblet has been executed is therefore highly characteristic of this engraver. Wolff specialised in depictions of country folk and rural life, including tavern scenes such as this. A total of just twenty goblets with a variety of bowl and stem formations by this engraver are recorded by Frans Smit in his catalogue, Uniquely Dutch Eighteenth-Century Dutch Stipple-Engravings on Glass (1993). This includes five glasses engraved with similar tavern scenes and two other glasses bearing the signature 'J Wolff', one of which is dated 1780. The present goblet is unrecorded and therefore represents an important addition to this artist's oeuvre. The identity of J Wolff is unknown, but if he was a relative of the renowned master engraver David Wolff it can only be his brother Jacob, born in 1742, see Smit (1993), p.17.
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