Van Ostade: Smoking in a tavern.

Flemings their pipe in a tavern.
Description: In front of probably a mantel, a man sat smoking a pipe had a small brazier to another pipe smoker earth trying to light his own. A pitcher on a coffee table. In the fund, left, a man faces a woman near a window.
Signed ». Av o «down the left. Dated 1632.

Technique: Pen ink on vellum or parchment.

State:
Recto: Four small holes, three or four other micro-holes. Various areas of wear surfaces. Bulges of skin retraction. Bottom right, small stamp collector.
Verso: Stamp collector. Inscription in ink at the beginning of XIX (which means, for registration, it will be nearly 200 years) as follows: «Collection de Wolf - 1817 Sale Van Bugel. Other registration collector in pencil and claw.

Comments: There is no need to enter into long explanations here. The work is old already entered into collection in 1817, which exclude anything before that date, it is clearly and authentically signed «lawyer», that is to say, Adriaan van Ostade. The date of 1632, however, deserves comment. It appears to be apocryphal, though perfectly coinciding with the period of production of Van Ostade, this kind of intimate atmosphere that provided common tavern in the old Netherlands. It is possible and even probable that this date was added by a former collector notified. In the best case, the addition is a spelling of the eighteenth century.

The authenticity of the piece does, anyway, no doubt. Hence its price, which mainly considers the state of wear regardless of the extreme rarity of such material.