Still Life with Ostrich Egg Cup and the Whitfield Heirlooms

Exhibition history

New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, The Paston Treasure: Microcosm of the Known World, Feb. 15-May 27; Norwich, England, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, June 23-Sept. 23, 2018, cat. 9 (ill).

Publications

Andrew Moore, Nathan Fils, and Francesca Vanke, The Paston Treasure: Microcosm of the Known World, exh. cat. (Yale Center for British Art/ Norfolk Museums Service/ Yale University Press, 2018), p. 70, 87 fn 23, 262-263, 265, cat. 9.

Quick Overview

Artist: Pieter Gerritsz. van Roestraeten (Dutch, 1630–1700)
Date: c. 1670
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 65.4 × 75.6 cm (25 3/4 × 29 3/4 in.); Framed: 77.2 × 88.3 × 4.5 cm (30 3/8 × 34 3/4 × 1 3/4 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: painting
Style: 17th Century
Place: Netherlands
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Credit line: European Decorative Arts Fund
Accession no.: 2009.114

Provenance

Possibly John Whitfield, Canterbury (died 1691), based on the inclusion in the painting of the ostrich egg cup mentioned in Whitfield’s will. Possibly by descent in the Whitfield family. Sold, Sotheby’s, London, 15 December, 1976, no. 130. Paris, Loudmer, Hôtel Drouot, June 30, 1993, no. 21. Sold. Phillips, London [according to the catalogue of the 2008 Christie’s sale cited below]; Philip Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham, London; his sale, Christie’s, London, 25 November, 2008, no. 55, in a single lot with the Whitfield cup (2009.113), a silver-gilt mounted ostrich egg cup and cover, which is depicted in the painting; bought by Wynyard Wilkinson as agent for the Art Institute.

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.