A Pair of Dutch Bronze Cannons, probably made for King Charles XI of Sweden, dated 1687

Peter Finer, London;

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian, 20 July 2011.

The arms on this magnificent pair of cannon barrels can be identified as a version of the Royal Arms of Sweden from the Vasa dynasty revived by the founder for King Charles XI (1655-97) of Sweden. In 1687, when these barrels were made, Charles XI found himself playing a pivotal role in the shifting diplomatic alliances that punctuated the complex struggles for political and military dominance among European powers in the late 17th century.

In 1667, The Treaty of Breda had ended more than a decade of hostilities between England and Holland, who had been maritime and commercial rivals since 1652, and the following year they formed a Triple Alliance with Sweden, a compelling factor in Louis XIV of France's decision to make peace with Spain through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle signed shortly thereafter, which temporarily halted France's aims of territorial expansion in the Low Countries.

Two years later in 1670, however, Charles II of England reneged on the Dutch alliance through the Secret Treaty of Dover with France, in which he agreed to support a French invasion of Holland in exchange for financial incentives. At the same time France sought the support of Sweden, who signed a defensive alliance in April 1672 in return for generous subsidies. Louis XIV recommenced his attacks on the Netherlands in what became known as the Franco-Dutch War, whilst Sweden engaged in several years of parallel hostilities in the Scanian War with its neighbours Denmark and Brandenburg-Prussia. Both conflicts came to an end with the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1678-79, but peace was fragile and not helped by Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and subsequent persecution of French Huguenots, which antagonised Northern Protestant countries. In 1689 a new alliance between England, the Dutch Republic and the Habsburg Empire was formed to counter French aggression.

It was during this febrile period that this pair of cannons was created, and based on their style and the form of their inscriptions they appear to have been fabricated in Holland. Of unusually rich decoration, they were likely commissioned as a diplomatic gift for Charles XI in an effort to persuade the Swedish monarch to join the anti-French league. In such a context, the iconography of King David is highly symbolic, providing both a flattering comparison to the great Biblical king and an allusion to the titanic struggle between David and Goliath, seen here as a battle of smaller nations against the military threat of France, Europe's most powerful and populous kingdom at the time. Cannons of this quality required the combined skills of the gun-founder and the sculptor and were among the costliest arms of their day, making them eminently appropriate as prestigious gifts.