Item ref: 3767
Sotheby & Co., 15th May 1972, lot 117
Private collection, United States
Assessing the present cannon barrel, specific stylistic motifs which make up its exquisite ornamentation are also found on a pair of cannon signed by Löeffler and which are dated 1550 (private collection). Motifs such as the cascable breeching-ring formed as a marine grotesque, the allegorical figural plaquette, in this instance ‘Fortuna’ (cast after an original design by the Nuremberg engraver Hans Sebald Beham), the complex and characterful festoon mouldings and the animated hunting frieze all belong to the foremost tier of German gunfounding as practiced within the third quarter of the 16th century.
Three examples of barrels by Hans Christof Löffler are preserved in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin (formerly the Berlin city Zeughaus); another two are in the Kunsthistorischesuseum, Vienna, and a further two are in the Artillery Collection of the Military Museum, Istanbul. Perhaps his finest bronze barrel was the demi-culverin named ‘Die Schöne Taube’ (‘the Beautiful Dove’), cast by Hans Christof in about 1570 and formerly in the Berlin zeughaus, until its destruction in 1945 (inv.nr. 6808).
For a comprehensive illustrated account of Löffler’s ‘Die Schöne Taube’ referred to above, see Ingrid Weber, ‘Modelle zu den figürlichen Reliefs am Geschützrohr “Die Schöne Taube” Ehemals Zeughaus Berlin’, Waffen =und Kostümkunde, 1969, Heft 2, pp.129-136.
The influence of gunfounders such as the Löfflers’ was understandably widespread. A striking example of this influence was formerly provided by a bronze barrel (now destroyed also) cast by Oswald Baldner of Nuremberg and Cracow and dated 1561. In the preserved photographic record this barrel parallels the one now discussed particularly closely overall, and even shares specific motifs which are near-identical; the festooned bands for example, together with a figural allegorical plaquette and the small rising birds which are arranged around the vent-field and about the lifting-handles. This barrel was cast for Duke Albrecht of Prussia and just like ‘Die Schöne Taube’ it was in the Berlin Zeughaus and destroyed in 1945 (see Gerhard Quaas and André König, Verluste aus den Sammlungen des Berliner Zeughaus, Berlin 2011, p.206, cat. no. 778.
The very high quality of the relief casting and hand-chiselled finishing evident in the present barrel is a hallmark of the Löffler family of bronze founders. Their principal foundry was established in about 1480 by Peter Löffler, in Hötting, a suburb of Innsbruck. His son Gregor (b. circa 1490) had been appointed a Master Gunner in the emperor’s service in 1523, but resigned in the following year to establish a new bronze foundry in Augsburg, to work parallel with the Innsbruck foundry. It is estimated that in his working life the Innsbruck foundry produced over 1,000 full-sized pieces of bronze ordnance and innumerable small barrels; in modern times Gregor is acclaimed as the most important gunmaker of the mid-16th century. A measure of his accomplishment, in 1534 Gregor succeeded to the completion of the casting of the bronze figures for the tomb of the Emperor Maximillian; he continued working until his retirement in old age in 1563 (died 1565).
Gregor’s second son, Hans Christof Löffler (1526-1597), is first mentioned in 1543 when his name and that of his brother Elias appear on bells cast at their father’s foundry. Upon Gregor’s retirement Hans Christof took over the management of the Innsbruck foundry and was subsequently appointed Master Founder to the Archduke Ferdinand II of the Tyrol. Hans Christof went on to cast considerable quantities of bronze guns for both the Emperor Maximilian II and for his successor Rudolf II, working also in Vienna and Prague, each seats of the Habsburg court.
In 1591 Hans Christof was rewarded for his services to the Habsburg court by the grant of a patent of nobility.
Hans Christof was joined in the foundries by his son Christof II (b.1568), who later succeeded his father and subsequently entered the emperor’s service. In 1604 he sold the Hötting foundry to the government of the Tyrol, having established his new foundry in Vienna.
Further members of this dynastic family of bronze founders were Alexander (d. circa 1542), Christof I (d. circa 1501), Elias (d.1610), Peter (d. circa 1530), Philipp (circa 1530-55) and Wenzl (d. 1537).
Upon the death of Christof II in 1623 the Löffler dynasty of distinguished cannon founders came to an end.