Important Silversmith - Karl Bender a.k.a Karl Bank
Antique 19th Century Austrian exceptionally rare solid silver gilt, enamel and rock crystal hunting horn with cover. The rock crystal engraved with chimeras among scrollwork, with silver gilt mounts with pierced and enamelled hunting scenes amid strapwork and set with precious gem stones, terminating in a fox head and paws. The horn supported by a mythical winged hippocamp and the detachable lid mounted with a small stag finial.
Reference Number: A4363
The mark “KB” appears on some of the finest objets d’art produced in Vienna in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Objects of the highest quality - such as tazzas, cups, nefs, clocks, cornucopias - were made in Vienna, emulating the style of Italian Renaissance and Baroque, using beautifully carved rock crystal or hand-painted enamel, and mounted in elaborate silver-gilt mounts and set with precious stones. The striking quality of such pieces, and the unique use of finely painted enamel, is typical of a handful of Viennese makers, such as Hermann Böhm and Hermann Ratzersdorfer.
19th Century Austrian hand painted enamel dish applied with silver mounts. The scallop-shaped dish with a saucer centered with 5 reserves depicting various religious scenes, surrounded by scrolling foliage, masks and raised on four ball shaped feet and reverse depicting a continuous landscape surrounded by scrolling ivy.
Hallmarked with Vienna town mark (A), Maker KB for Karl Bank.
Reference Number: A5285
Competing with the above firms, some of the finest objects of this kind are marked “KB” on the silver mounts. These initials have been long attributed to Karl Bank, jeweller active in Vienna between 1895 and 1924.
Further research recently demonstrated that these superb pieces are in fact the work of Karl Bender. His workshop was located in Vienna from 1875 until 1880 at Wienstrasse 63 and then at Grüngasse 25 from 1881 until 1892 (see Waltraud Neuwirth, Wiener Gold and Silberschmiede und ihre Punzen, 1867-1922, Vienna, 1976, p. 102).
Bender trained under the goldsmith Hermann Leichter, specialising in revivalist precious-metal objects mounted in enamel and hardstone.