Wenzel Hollar
Muff with brocade trim
Details
Parthey 1946; Turner (The New Hollstein) 798.
Description
Excellent impression with high contrast and a fine border around the partially inked plate edge. In his eight-sheet series, Hollar meticulously reproduces the texture of fur muffs – hand warmers were already luxury goods back then. This rare sheet shows a fur muff, laid out as if in a shop window display, divided in two by an embroidered brocade ribbon. Every single hair and the shine of the fur are captured in naturalistic detail with tiny lines. Associations of the muff as an attribute of the so-called “Venus in fur” come to mind. In fact, a 1699 English dictionary confirms the garment’s erotic connotations by ambiguously referring to it as “a woman’s secrets.” – With some small, isolated foxmarks. The paper slightly thinned due to former mounting and with remnants of mounting on the reverse on the upper edge, otherwise a well-preserved impression.
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