Fishing Putti, Lid of a Snuff Box

Entry

Starting at the end of the sixteenth century, large exotic shell collections were first being assembled in the Northern Netherlands. These natural-historical curiosities could be imported from overseas thanks to the Dutch colonies and trade relations. As a result, cabinets containing these objects were becoming increasingly larger in scale, with the absolute high point occurring in the eighteenth century.² The shells were decorated with engravings and reliefs and sometimes encased in a precious metal frame, thus transforming them into treasured works of art.

This large pearl oyster shell bears a scene of three fishing putti, composed of ebonized line engravings in combination with relief-carved figures. Visible along the shell’s bottom edge is the signature of the Amsterdam mother-of-pearl carver Cornelis Bellekin (c. 1625-1696/1711). Bellekin sold his decorated shells as independent pieces for display in a collector’s cabinet, shell collection or Kunst- und Wunderkabinett. Utilitarian objects made of silver adorned with these artistically worked shells – including the snuff box discussed here – are invariably of later date.³ In the present case, the shell’s natural protuberance was likely removed to more readily accommodate the box’s rounded form. By contrast, unmounted pearl oyster shells were generally left intact, retaining their natural, asymmetrical contours (cf. BK-1986-19-A and -B; BK-NM-616 and -617).⁴

The Bel(le)quin family of mother-of-pearl engravers originated from Metz and settled in the Northern Netherlands at the onset of the seventeenth century.⁵ This family was specialized in the artistic working of mother of pearl with ebonized line engravings (cf. NG-KOG-1655). Its youngest and most important member was the Amsterdam mother-of-pearl carver Cornelis Bellekin, who often combined the techniques of etching and engraving with sculptural relief carving. The shell of the Great Pearl Oyster (Pteria maxima Jameson) was perfectly suited for such purposes, thanks to its ample surface and the substantial thickness of the layer of mother of pearl. In most cases, the shell’s concave exterior was used, requiring first that the outer shell layer be removed to expose the mother of pearl. Georg Rumphius (1627-1702), a natural historian working for the East India Company on the Moluccan island Ambon, explains this process in his publication on shells, in which he likewise addresses other techniques of mother-of-pearl working.⁶ Cornelis Bellekin was one of the few artists to successfully execute scenes carved in low relief on the Nautilus shell’s extremely thin layer of mother of pearl (cf. BK-1957-18 and -19). He is also known to have decorated a number of ostrich eggs with relief carving and engravings.⁷ Bellekin’s innovative spirit is further exemplified by his invention of a newly devised tool for drilling diamonds, pearls and agate, which he advertised on 2 February 1696 in the Donderdagse Courant, a local Amsterdam newspaper.

In his day, Cornelis Bellekin was the leading mother-of-pearl engraver in the Dutch Republic. This was after a failed attempt to garner success as a painter in Middelburg in the years 1662-63. His peasant tableaux painted in the spirit of Teniers and Van Ostade are subjects also found on his earliest shells. The present oyster shell with the fishing putti – possibly an allegory of Fishing – is most likely of later date, created in the period that Bellekin’s interest had shifted to loftier religious, mythological and allegorical subjects.

Although impressed by Bellekin’s technical skill, Zacharias von Uffenbach, author of the travel account Merkwurdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und Engelland, was somewhat less enthusiastic about the artistic quality of his work. When visiting an Amsterdam collector in the year 1711, he remarked: ?Furthermore he showed us […] all sorts of shells, including many beautiful Nautili and mother-of-pearl shells by C. Bellekin, who is the best mother-of-pearl engraver here, carved as they were very purely and beautifully worked, yet the drawing on them was nothing special.’⁸ Von Uffenbach’s note of critique warrants merit: especially in the depiction and proportioning of his figures, Bellekin’s skill was indeed unexceptional, as can also be observed in the rather rotund putti of the present relief.

This in no way belies the fact that Bellekin’s mother-of-pearl carvings were greatly admired in the Northern Netherlands, represented the most prominent collections. The art cabinet of the Amsterdam merchant’s widow Petronella Oortmans-de la Court (1624-1707) contained a drawer filled with twenty different shells, ‘all carved most masterfully by the famous Bellekin’.⁹ His work was also amply represented in the renowned cabinet of natural curiosities of the Amsterdam apothecary Albertus Seba (1655-1736) and the resplendent cabinet of the amateur (garden) designer and collector Simon Schijnvoet (1652-1727).¹⁰

Bieke van der Mark, 2025