Nautilus pompilius shells, native to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, are renowned for their beauty and rarity. Whether used in their natural state or included in meticulously crafted pieces, they were found in the “cabinets of rarities” of the private collections of the great nobility. Nautilus cups were popular since the late 16th century in Germany and especially the Netherlands, as they were imported from Indonesia by Dutch navigators, who thus became the first Europeans to work pieces of this type. The decoration of Nautilus cups is closely linked to the marine nature of the shell. Therefore, the predominant characters of the ornamentation are mythological marine characters, sea monsters, marine vegetation.
17th-century artists and collectors considered Nautilus shells to be masterpieces of nature, which is why they inserted them into pieces with extremely meticulously crafted precious metal mounts. Often, it was the mounts that transformed the shells into decorative cups, combining the beauty of the shell with the skill of the goldsmith. They were given special attention during handling, transportation and other processing processes, their main purpose being to arouse admiration and enrich the decoration of noble interiors. The very spiral shape of the shell, made up of two layers, the inner shiny, pearly, the outer one with the consistency of porcelain, allows the engraving of various decorative motifs. From the very beginning of the shell processing, the sharp edge was removed and replaced with a fine metal ring made with skill.
The refinement and remarkable talent of the craftsmen who executed the objects of the Renaissance period, which depicted various birds and animals, attracted the attention of goldsmiths of the historicist century, who reproduced them with great meticulousness. The creators were also inspired by the Flemish paintings of the 17th century, signed by Willem Kalf (1619-1693), Pieter Claesz (1597–1660), Pieter van Roestraten (1629-1700), famous for their still life paintings, and by the contemporary of the historicist century Jean-Baptiste Robie (1821-1910), an exponent of the Belgian school of fine arts. Their creations, in which special attention was paid to the overall composition, are striking in their clarity and richness of detail. These masters of the brush knew how to highlight the beauty and brilliance of the painted objects, giving the works a touch specific to the Flemish school through the way they combined light and shadow.
Starting from all this, German masters brought the art of precious metal processing to a level of mastery that was lost with the great world wars of the first half of the 20th century.
Nautilus-shell swans have rightly been considered objects of exceptional artistic value. In addition to their decorative attributes, they are also endowed with functionality, serving as containers for storing small valuable objects.
The Peleş National Museum holds in its decorative art collection several exceptional examples of this category, including a piece made of hammered silver, decorated with semi-precious stone cabochons and a Nautilus shell depicting a swan. The piece is a German product, created in the workshop of Edmund Wollenweber (1846-1889), a leading representative of the historicist era goldsmithing.
The oval-shaped, raised support with a wavy border, decorated on the base with four circular cabochons with semi-precious stones, presents in slight relief lake vegetation with lizards, snails and insects. The pedestal supports a swan with silver legs, neck, head, as well as the wings that form the hinged lid.
The body of the swan, made of Nautilus pompilius, is supported by 4 cut-out bands, with the decoration enriched with circular and ovoid cabochons of different colors. The semi-precious stones arranged on the entire surface of the body, total 1 jasper, 1 carnelian, 1 cat's eye, 1 jade, 1 polished oval amethyst, 3 corals, 3 small yellow imitation citrine bottles, 1 cat's eye on the head 1 small imitation amazonite bottle, the eyes of 2 imitation almandine bottles and under the beak 1 lapis lazuli ribbon. The inner part of the lid is gilded.
The special artistic values of this piece weighing 1085 grams and marked 800‰ silver are evident. The swan is also distinguished by its significant dimensions, namely the height of 36 cm., the length of 31 cm. and the width of 15 cm. The pedestal measuring 22.3/15 cm ensures stability of the piece, to which the swan's posture also contributes, namely the bowed head and the fan-shaped tail, the maximum length reaching 31 cm. It is obvious that in addition to the artistic talent of the goldsmith, he was also a fine connoisseur of the exact sciences to be able to guarantee the balance of various objects made of noble metals. The German artist knew how to combine metalworking techniques, combining within the same piece the cast, pressed elements, with those created by hammering, enriching the ornamentation with brightly colored cabochons, openwork decoration and shells.
The result is commendable, the piece managing to become one of the most appreciated goldsmith's works in the royal collection.