Third offer: result

I made a third offer, at DVC in Ghent, for what they described as a "German School, 16th or 17th century" Adoration, oil on copper, 35 by 28 cm, estimated at 700 to 1,000 Euro.

I was a bit amazed that an auction house in Flanders didn't recognise the style as that of Frans Francken II (by now well known to readers of this blog). Francken II (and by extension all the Franckens) commonly reused their more succesful compositions many times. For this one, I only found two other examples.

First I found this lot from Christie's, sold as Studio of Francken II (perhaps Hieronymus Francken II or Ambrosius Francken II) in 1997 for £2,875. It is a simplified version (loses some parts of the composition), but somewhat better painted in some details.

Some further searching revealed what may be the original version of this painting, this time in a flower garland. The flowers are attributed to the Circle of Jan Brueghel II, and the interior again to the Studio of Francken II. It sold at Christie's in 2002 for a nice £18,800. It has the exact same composition as the one that was for sale at DVC, with the seethrough to the palm tree on the right, and the God-the-Father above, which were both missing in the 1997 copy.

Another version, very comparable to the one for sale, is, according to the RKD, kept in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, but I can't find it on the website of that museum.

I would estimate the one for sale at DVC at at least $2,000.

And sure enough, I lost it as it ended at 2,200 Euro, which seems to be a correct, somewhat low price but no longer a true bargain.