Jacob Bodendick

( 1633 - 1681 )

An Exciting Group of Three 17th Century Charles II Two-Handled Cage-Work Cups & Covers

Jacob Bodendick

( 1633 - 1681 )

An Exciting Group of Three 17th Century Charles II Two-Handled Cage-Work Cups & Covers

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The Templetown Baronet’s Braggot Cup
circa 1670
Attributable to the Workshop of Jacob Bodendick

7 3⁄8 in. (18.7 cm.) long, over handles
28 oz. 16 dwt. (896 gr.)

Provenance:
Anne Bass Collection

The first of our cups has a cylindrical silver gilt body on three ball feet. The pierced and chased cage-work with birds and foliate scroll decoration, the scroll handles terminating in mythical beast heads, the pull off cover with a rope work border, pierced cage-work surmounted with a bee and blossom finial.

A Charles II Parcel Gilt Two-Handled Cage-Work Cup & Cover
Circa 1670
Attributable to the Workshop of Jacob Bodendick

Height: 16 cm, 6.3 in, Weight: 760 g, 24 oz 8 dwt

Provenance: A Hong Kong Private Collection

This cup is similar to the Baron Templeton cup. The handles are very close in form, as are the three ball feet, bee and blossom finial and the form of cage-work. The design varies with the use of more flowers and type of bird chased in the design.

A Charles II Parcel Gilt Two-Handled Cage-Work Cup
Circa 1680

Height: 20.5cm, 8 in, Weight: 1,163 g, 37 oz 8 dwt

Bearing the crests of the Earls of Clonmell

This third cup is very interesting in that it maintains its very Germanic feel whilst exhibiting so many differences to the first two cups. With strong caryatid handles and half-ball feet the cage-work includes an exotic bird to one side similar to Paul Göttich’s print and yet the cup is far more extravagant too, with an ostrich to the reverse side of the body and whilst the cover has similar pierced and chased floral decoration to the first two cups it also has additional interspersed beasts including a squirrel, ox, mouse and a wolf. The open acanthus finial also forms a far stronger feel to the first two cups. It is also interesting to note that the cup is nearly double in size to the first two examples. It is hard to imagine with all these differences especially the bolder feel, that this cup was intended for braggot as with the other two cups.

SILVERSMITH BIOGRAPHY

Charles Oman (Caroline Silver, 1970, pp. 34-5) identified the mark of Jacob Bodendick and Eric J. G. Smith (Jacob Bodendick, The Silver Society Journal 13, 2001, pp. 66-80 and Jacob Bodendeich, The Silver Society Journal 14, 2002, pp. 109-122) has gone on to research the life and career of this silversmith in great detail. Bodendick was born in Lṻneburg in 1633 in what is now Germany and was apprenticed to Heinrich Fulman or Volman II in 1650 and became a freeman in 1654. Nothing is known of his early career but he was first mentioned in the English Calendar of State Papers in 1661. Initially he worked as a chaser and caster for William Mouse I whose daughter Susan he married in 1661 in the same year. Philippa Glanville (Alien Goldsmiths at the Court of Charles II, Grosvenor House Fair catalogue, 1993) described how skilled continental silversmiths such as Bodendick would have been welcome in Restoration London: “The court plate made in the 1660s and 1670s is typically mannerist, theatrical in effect, richly decorated and delighting in complex details. It demanded a degree of technical skill and awareness of contemporary ornament which drove the royal goldsmiths to depend on foreigners, craftsmen trained in Flanders, Germany and Switzerland”. By 1664 Bodendick had won the right to have his plate assayed and became a Freeman of the City of London and free of the Goldsmiths’ Company by denization in 1673. He established his own workshop in St. Martin-le-Grand in 1678 which employed a number of workers. Work bearing his mark extends over a wide range of objects including: sleeve cups, tankards, candlesticks, communion cups and patens, porringers, toilet sets and maces. He died in 1681 and was buried at the church of St. Ann and St. Agnes.