Date &/or provenance unknown – Recorder Home Page

Decorative panel, painted wood, Spanish (?date). Tordesillas: Iglesia de San Antolín. Ref. Website: Anges Musiciens (2010-col.) Amongst some twining flowers, two angels (one naked, one wearing a pink skirt) play slender conical pipes which might represent recorders. The church itself dates from the 15th century and contains a museum of religious art collected from churches in the vicinity.
Angel Musician (? date), stone carving. Manchester: Cathedral, nave, decorating one of the stone corbels for the roof, between two window arches. Ref. Website: flickr, Rex Harris’ photostream (2010). An angel plays a gilded, decidedly baroque recorder of tenor size, left hand lowermost. Perhaps it is a replacement for the original lost in the German bombing (1940) or the IRA explosion (1996).
Monkey Band, 7 porcelain figurines, variously 9.5–15 cm high, German. California: Butterfields Auctioneers Corp, 9 April 1988, Lot 197. Ref. Website: Artfact (2004). Including the conductor, the musicians playing the cello, French horn, military drum, mandolin, recorder and another, brightly painted costumes and hats, gilt-decorated bases.
Untitled, painting, ? 18th century, ? French ? artist. Ref. CD cover: Nocturne, Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet (2005). Seated beneath a tree in a garden before a fountain, a gentleman is teaching a lady how to play the recorder. A maid with a basket sits beside her; a young lad leaning on a stick, stands behind.
[Classical Group], porcelain figurine, 19.7 cm high, German. San Francisco: Butterfields, Furniture and Decorative Arts including Silver, Japanese Prints & Paintings, Carpets & Rugs, 16 February 1988, Lot 3822. Ref. Website: Artfact 2004. A classically draped woman seated by a tree playing a recorder beside two putti, one playing the flute, the other holding a book of music, in tones of pink, blue, and green (losses to tree, restoration), under-glaze blue cancelled crossed swords.
Shepherd and his Flock, Meissen porcelain figurine, 20 cm high, German. New York: Christies, Nineteeth Century Furniture, Sculpture and Ceramics, 31 May 2000, Lot 328. Ref. Website Artfact (2004). Blue crossed swords mark, incised 1359, impressed 121, and painter’s 24. A shepherds is leaning on a tree playing a recorder, a goat, seven sheep and his hound at his feet.
Quarrelling Musicians, ? woodcut, ? date, ? artist and/or provenance. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.21507. A group of musicians seem to be quarreling; one on his hands and knees is picking up the pieces of his broken ? fiddle; another walks away from the group playing a long pipe with a flared bell (probably a shawm rather than a duct flute, given the presence of a reed and the tuning hole near the foot).
Rural Scene, ? woodcut, ? date, ? artist and/or provenance. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.21506. In front of a farmhouse with cattle and corn growing, a monk listens to a man in a cape playing a pipe with a flared bell (shawm or duct flute), possibly a recorder. Several finger holes are visible under the player’s uppermost (left) hand, and two beneath the right hand; the wall of the bell is shown as being very thick, and thus rather more like a recorder than a shawm.
[Dancers] ? woodcut, ? date, ? artist and/or provenance. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.21484. Indoors, five men dance in a circle; a priest and a finely dressed woman have fallen to the floor. Music is provided by a standing musician playing a flared-bell pipe (shawm or duct flute, possibly a recorder).
Trapped Hunter, ? woodcut, ? date, ? artist and/or provenance. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.21496. A hunter caught in a bramble bush greets a lad walking by who plays a broadly flared pipe (shawm or duct flute, possibly a recorder). The hunter’s bow lies in front of him, on the ground.
Feast of Fools, ? woodcut, ? date, ? artist and/or provenance. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.21502. This woodcut appears to depict the Feast of Fools, the medieval successor to the Roman Saturnalia. Outdoors, a crowd of people are dancing or playing games to music provided by a standing musician playing a flared-bell pipe (shawm or duct flute, possibly recorder). In the foreground two men dressed as monks on all fours are ridden by partly naked women. The monk in the lead seems to have had beans for breakfast!
Dancers Before a Tavern ? woodcut, ? date, ? artist and/or provenance. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.21455. In front of a building (? tavern) a man and two women dance to music provided by a musician standing in the doorway playing a pipe with a flared bell (shawm or duct flute, possibly a recorder). The woman dancing holds a rake; the other holds a tankard.
The Dancing Dog ? woodcut, ? date, ? artist and/or provenance. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.21451. In the background, a man rides astride a donkey, his arms in the air, and a child is held up to watch. In the foreground a dog dances on its hind legs to music provided by a man playing a pipe with a flared bell (shawm or duct flute, possibly a recorder).
A Boy with a Recorder, black chalk, 17.9 × 17.9 cm, Italian. London: Christie’s, British and Continental Watercolours and Drawings, 21 May 1997, Lot 48. Ref. Website: Artfact (2004). Not seen.
Untitled, ? woodcut, ? date, ? provenance. American Recorder Society: Card. Ref. Walter Bergmann ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2005). A woman seated before a portative organ plays a tenor-sized cylindrical recorder. This medieval or mock-medieval illustration appeared on a small blue ARS card entitled THE AMERICAN RECORDER SOCIETY / Musical Direction: ERICH KATZ / CONCERT
? Title, ? tapestry, ? date, ? provenance, ? artist. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2006). Beneath a small canopy, two very elaborately dressed musicians play flute and guitar respectively on each side of a draped table placed between two urns containing floral arrangements. On the table are a lute, violin, shawm and recorder. Only the head of the recorder is visible. Given the rococo-style design this may be 18th-century French.
? Title, ? fresco, ? date, ? provenance, ? artist. Ref. Dmitry Badiarov (pers. comm.) Angels play viola da braccio, lute, organ and a long tenor-sized cylindrical recorder. The window/labium of the recorder is clearly shown, and the fingering is consistent with recorder-playing.
[Still-life], painting, ? date, ? provenance, ? artist. Ref. CD Cover: Bach Cello Suites, Marion Verbruggen, Harmonia Mundi HMU907260 (2000 – col.) Includes a bowl of fruit on a table with an open book of music and a small baroque-style recorder with an unusually prominent beak.
Font Cover (?date), marble statuette, German. Detail. Estebrügge: Martinskirche. Ref. Website: Anges Musiciens (2010-col.) The font cover is decorated with four musical putti playing harp, lute and two pipes. The latter are narrowly flared and all fingers of the players’ lowermost (right) hands are in play, so these may represent recorders.
Fish Siren (?date), carved wood relief, German. Blexen, Wesermarsch: St-Hippolyt-Kirche, pulpit. A fish siren holds a pipe with an abruptly flared bell as if it were a transverse flute. However, its profile and the presence of what looks very much like a window/labium rather than an embouchure hole suggest this might be a recorder. One of a series of panels surrounding the pulpit depicting the three sirens playing musical instruments. Although Apollodorus (Epitome 7: 18-19) says that the three sirens played flute and lyre and one sang, here the others play lute and violin.
Figures in a Landscape, oil on canvas, 54 × 36 cm, ? provenance, ? date. Bury St Edmunds: Antique Fine Art: 29 April – 5 May 2010. Ref. Website: eBay (UK), 29 April – 5 May 2010. A man with what looks like a rifle slung over his shoulder and two female figures reclining beside a stream are entertained by a shepherd lad playing a cylindrical pipe, his fingers and thumb perfectly deployed for recorder-playing. Before them an infant boy lies sleeping on what appears to be a floating mattress. In the mid-ground a seated woman is entertained by a bagpiper. In the background is a town and beyond that a hill. This could represent the Flight to Egypt. It appears to be the work of an amateur, possibly 19th century.

Cite this article as: Nicholas S. Lander. 1996–2024. Recorder Home Page: Date &/or provenance unknown. Last accessed 3 December 2024. https://recorderhomepage.net/recorder-iconography/anonymous-date-or-provenance-unknown/