Silver Vanitas Medal With A Skeleton & The Bust Of A Woman. German, 17th Century

A silver vanitas medal with a skeleton and the bust of a woman.

German, second quarter of the 17th century.

Measures 4.2 x 3.1cm.

An identical example was sold for £2,600 (plus commission) by Morton & Eden Ltd, lot 381, Auction 72, 15th-16th December 2014, it was described as:

*Germany, oval Vanitas medal, cast in silver, c. 1630, by Christian Maler, female bust right wearing coronet and pearl neck- lace with pendant resting between exposed breasts, rev., a skeleton watching an hour glass, 36 x 31mm (BDM III, 542 and VIII, 18), with loop for suspension, grey toned, very fine and rare £600-800

The Latin inscription continues from the obverse to the reverse and translates as: you shall see later on the back who I am ........ this am I now; once I was the fairest of all. Forrer in BDM wrongly identified the sitter as Elizabeth of Bohemia (the Winter Queen) and then re-attributed it, in the supplementary volume of BDM, to Anna Katherina Munk, a daughter of Christian IV of Denmark but without explanatory evidence.