Octagonal mortar with griffin-head handle bosses

Albert Hachman (mentioned 1520–1559)

Cleves, dated 1547

Bronze, cast
Inscription below the rim ‘god hefft ghevuucht das myr ghenucht’ [‘Gott has ordained what suffices for me’]
Inscription on the foot ‘anno domini m vc xlvii’ Later matching pestle in the form of a key

Height ca 15 cm, diameter at rim ca 15.7 cm
Provenance: • Berg, Siegfried Genz collection, Inv. No. 731 • Berg, Ernst Genz Collection, Inv. No. 731 • Deventer (Netherlands), Berend Dubbe • Antwerpe, Jan Dirven • ’s-Gravenhage [The Hague], A.J.G. Verster Collection

With its facetted octagonal wall, its imaginative griffin-head handle bosses and its trefoil drop rings the present mortar represents a unique masterpiece of German bronze casting. Each time it has been published it has been described as the chef d’œuvre of Albert Hachman, bronze founder in Cleves. Only two other octagonal mortars by Hachman are known to exist anywhere in the world: the first, dated 1533, is in the Rijksmuseum collections in Amsterdam and the other, dated 1547, is held at the Musées royaux d’art et d’histoire in Brussels. Both mortars reveal comparable design features, boast roughly the same dimensions as the work discussed here and both are decorated with lion’s head handle bosses. Compared to those two works, the present octagonal mortar with griffin-head handle bosses stands out as its maker’s most important work for its noticeably higher sculptural quality and the harmonious relationship between inscriptions and decoration. Made ten years after the mortar in Amsterdam and one year after the one in Brussels, the object discussed here undoubtedly represents the high point of an artistic development that parallels the heyday of the Hachman workshop in the mid-sixteenth century.