141 Design for an Ex Libris or a
Glass Etching
Pen and black ink, gray wash, and black chalk; diarn. 5.8
cm (2^5 /ioin.)
89.00.22MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At top, inscribed O.H.L.
by the artist; monogrammed V. S. in black ink; at bot-
tom, collection mark of Sir Peter Lely (L. 2092).
PROVENANCE: Sir Peter Lely, London; private collection
(sale, Christie's, London, December n, 1985, lot 174); art
market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THE HARP ON THE SHIELD OF THIS COAT OF ARMS IN-
dicates that the elderly king with flowing locks and beard
atop the helmet is David. The abbreviation O.H.L.
might refer to a family name or a motto. Among the var-
ious forms of monogram that Solis employed, the one
used here comes closest to that appearing on an engrav-
ing of 1553.^1 The design resembles Solis's engravings for
bookplates that also take the form of a coat of arms
within a circular wreath.^2 The exceptional liveliness and
expressiveness of the pen work here is in the tradition of
earlier coats of arms drawn by artists such as Hans Bal-
dung Grien.1. I. O'Dell-Franke, Kupferstiche unà Radierungen ans der Werk-
stattdes Virgil Solis (Weisbaden, 1977), p. 30, no. i 25.- Ibid., nos. 13-15.
314 CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL • SOLIS