As a preteen living in the town of Cranbrook in southeast England, Mat Winter had a peculiar habit of scavenging dumpsters in search of collectible antiques.
One day, he asked a woman who was about to throw an engraving into the garbage if he could have it instead, and she agreed. Winter was 11 years old at the time.
For 13 years, the artwork sat untouched in a cupboard in Winter’s house until he recently decided to see if it was worth anything and sent it for appraisal in Staffordshire, England.
The engraving turned out to be Albrecht Dürer’s “Knight, Death and the Devil” (1513–14), which sold for £33,390 (including premium) (~$44,000) to a private German collector at a sale held by Staffordshire’s Rare Book Auctions on September 5, exceeding its estimate of £10,000–£20,000 ($13,300–$26,600).
“This German Renaissance print is going home to Germany,” a Hansons Auctioneers spokesperson told Hyperallergic.
“Knight, Death and the Devil” is one of three of Dürer’s master engravings, which follow similar theological and moral throughlines. This particular work features a knight riding a horse as a devil caricature holding an hourglass, thought to be a reminder of how short life is.
A United States-based research fellow assisted Rare Book Auctions in verifying the work’s authenticity based on the presence of a few “imperceptible” scratches on the knight’s head, according to a statement announcing the auction. It was ultimately deemed a “museum-worthy” engraving in good condition.
The director of Rare Book Auctions, Jim Spencer, said the work was the “most important print” he’d ever cataloged, adding, “I’ve seen countless prints copying Dürer, from a much later period or produced by a different means, but I’d only ever seen the real thing in museums — until now.”
