Item ref: 5232
Made for Admiral Henrik Bielke (d.1683), commander of the Danish-Norwegian Navy (1657-79), for presentation to his young son, Christian Fridrich Bielke (1670-1709).
Transferred from one of the three Bielke family estates to the former Danish royal residence of Valdemar’s Castle, on the island of Tåsinge in southern Denmark (date unknown); since 1678 the seat of Admiral Niels Juel (1629-97), a compatriot of Admiral Bielke, each celebrated victors of the Swedish Wars; Jules’ grandson of the same name was resident there 1723-66, and the descendant family thereafter until 2017. The three cannon remained at Valdemar’s Castle, displayed in the ‘Niels Juel Room’ (inv. no. NJS 01) until the sale of the castle and its contents in 2022.
Sold Brunn Rasmussen, Copenhagen, Fine Art and Antiques from Valdemar’s Castle, 21 September 2022.
This rare matching trio of cannon are a superb example of bronze gun-founding in the German baroque tradition. The relief castings are preserved in crisp condition with almost no cleaning wear, and the three share a uniform light patina throughout. Each is stamped somewhat cryptically with the founder’s abbreviated and Latinised signature all in miniscules between the fillet mouldings of the base ring: A. B. M(e) F(ecit). LVBECA. 1678
There can be little doubt that the founder is Albrecht Benningck of Lübeck, a Master gun- and bell-founder (historically a Rotgießer) of pre-eminent accomplishment within the period.
Albrecht Benningck (16137-95) was appointed gunfounder to the wealthy north German city of Lübeck in 1665, at this date the de facto trading and cultural capital of the Hanseatic city states, the powerful centre of trade with the Baltic nations and those of the North Sea coasts.
The three bronze barrels forming this saluting battery each take the multi-stage form characteristic of north European ordnance of the period. These stages or sections are segmented by a series of raised asragal, fillet and ogee mouldings, with those encircling the muzzle naturally taking the greatest prominence. Immediately behind these forward mouldings the muzzle section is completed by a wide repeating architectural frieze in relief, involving leaf ornament and grotesques. The succeeding chase section of the barrel is again decorated with relief bands of acanthus leaf ornament differing top and bottom; behind this the second reinforce is decorated over its whole upper surface with a further acanthus leaf panel arranged as a symmetrical design, and seats both the trunnions at the sides and a pair of lifting handles above, the latter formed as marine monsters cast in the round.
Rearward, the first reinforce is cast with a mantled shield bearing the arms and crest of the Bielke family of Denmark (Armorial Général ed. 1923/91, vol. I, pl. CCXI), below this a scroll is inscribed with the name of the recipient owner ‘ CHRISTIAN FRIDRICH CHRISTIAN BIELKE’, the entire armorial design enclosed by triumphant laurel branches and all set against a contrasting matted ground. The vent field beneath this is decorated with further scrolling leafy stems, the bronze founder’s abbreviated signature and the date stamped at the base ring, and the cascable cast with a prominent button formed as a budding calyx and issuant from an acanthus calyx cast over the matted cascable face.
In 1668 Albrecht Benningck cast the famous Pulsglocke bell for the Marienkirche in Lübeck: destroyed in 1942, today the great bell serves as a war memorial. In the following year he completed two 48-pdr. presentation guns for the Seven Provinces of the United Netherlands, these exceptional works being the finest and most elaborately cast pieces of bronze ordnance to bear Benningck’s name. These are said to have been a gift for the prompt payment of a large order (presumably a significant payment for the fulfilment of a Netherlands military contract). The pair were subsequently looted from the Delft arsenal by Napoleonic troops, one was sent to Vienna and the other to Berlin, where it was destroyed in the Second World War.
The surviving masterpiece gun is today preserved in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna.
In 1679, the year following the casting of these three saluting cannon, Albrecht Benningck cast a further magnificent 24-pdr. Gun, named the ‘Pallas Athene’, for Friedrich Willhelm, Prince Elector of Brandenburg; that gun is now displayed in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.
Further examples of Benningck’s bronze cannon are in the Tøjhus Museum in Copenhagen, the Legermuseum in Delft, and the Artillery Museum in Saint Petersburg.
In 1685 Benningck clashed with the Lübeck city council over two mortars for which he claimed he had not been paid. Disenchanted by the outcome of that discussion Benninck left the city in 1686 or ’87, probably for Berlin. In 1692 Benninck moved to Copenhagen to take up the post of Royal Gunfounder. He remained there for the remaining four year of his life. The present three cannon made for a notable Danish family are evidence of Benningck’s existing connections in Copenhagen, presumably established through the reach of Lübeck commerce.
Henrik Bielke (1615-83) was the son of the Chancellor of Norway. Following his education at the University of Padua Bielke’s military career began in the service of the Dutch Republic, under Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. He transferred in 1644 to the service of Christian IV, King of the Realm of Denmark-Norway, which brought with it his appointment to the Norwegian Governor-General. Bielke returned to Denmark in 1648 and was appointed administrator of Iceland.
In 1653 Bielke was promoted to Captain and in the following year was in action against English pirates. Within the Danish-Swedish War of 1657-8 Henrik Bielke achieved a celebrated Danish victory over the Swedish fleet at the Battle of Møn, 12th September 1657, commanding together with his compatriot Admiral Niels Juel, who had previously distinguished himself in the Dutch service during the First Anglo-Dutch War.
In reward for his actions Bielke was promoted Riksadmiral in 1662 and in 1666 he received a seat on the Danish Privvy Council. Bielke retired from his senior command in the Dano-Norwegian Navy in 1679.
His son Christian Fridrich Bielke, the young recipient of this battery of small cannon, grew up at the family residence of Naesbyholm near Glumsø. It was presumably from there that the present three cannon came into Niels Juels’ ownership and were transferred to Valdemar’s Castle, the home of his son and in turn his grandson also.
In 1723 the castle became the residence of Niels Juels the Younger, Chamberlain to the Danish Royal Court and grandson of the Danish naval hero. The present cannon were presumably in situ during this period and would have remained so after his death in 1766.
Christian Fridrich Bielke grew up to pursue a distinguished career in the Danish army and in the service of the Allied Alliance against France. In 1688 he entered the Royal Life Guards as an officer cadet. Following active service in The Nine Years War in the Spanish Netherlands, in 1695 Bielke served as a volunteer in the allied forces during the Siege of Namur. In 1701 he was promoted to colonel and commanding officer of the newly formed Funen infantry regiment, thence to command Prince Christian’s Regiment in 1706. Two years later he resumed active field service in command of a battalion of Prince Carl’s Regiment in the Anglo-Dutch force in Brabant, also serving as brigadier of the auxiliaries.
In June 1709 Bielke took part in the victorious allied Siege of the fortress of Tournai, under the overall command of the Duke of Marlborough, and on 11th September was severely wounded at the infamously bloody Battle of Malplaquet, dying three days later. Naesbyholm was sold within that year, to King Frederik IV.