A Gilt-Metal-Mounted Figure of An Ostrich, 17th Century

Die Silberkammer des Landgrafen von Hessen-Kassel, 2003, no.33

Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) discussed the ostrich in his Natural History and wrote than it had the ability to digest anything. In 1599 Ulisse Aldrovandi, in his Ornithologiae hoc est de avibus historiae libri XII, repeated Pliny's words but explained that he had observed the ostrich eat iron but when excreted it had not been digested. Nevertheless, Aldrovandi chose to illustrate the bird with a horseshoe in its mouth. This became a popular symbol in the 17th century, and used heraldically, being the crest of several families including Digby. Later a crest of an ostrich head with horseshoe was granted to Sir Richard Wallace (Wallace Collection) in 1872 when he was created a baronet; a silver cup formed as an ostrich with a horseshoe by Elias Zorer, Augsburg, circa 1600, is preserved in the Wallace Collection.

A similar gilt-bronze ostrich from the Heinrich Neuerburg Collection was sold Lempertz, November 15, 2013, lot 870.