140 JAN STEEN SECT. 522. The Ship of St. Reyn Uyt. W. 478. With many figures. Well rendered. A masterpiece. Sales. Amsterdam, July 14, 1714, No. 5 (112 florins). Jonas Witsen, Amsterdam, March 23, 1717, No. 14 (100 florins). 523. A MERRY COMPANY. Sm. 132 and 147 and Suppl. 64 ; W. 23 and 298. At a table to the right a man sits comfortably on a bench, smoking a pipe. A child, held by its mother, stands on the table and clutches at the clouds of smoke. In the foreground a laughing girl, with her back to the spectator, reclines in a chair ; she wears a blue jacket trimmed with white fur and a red skirt, and holds a jug in her left hand. An old man, with his cap awry, sits opposite and drinks to her. An old woman near a window, at which stands a flute-player, sings from a sheet of music. A maid-servant brings- in a cake. Through an open door is seen a wall, in which is a niche with a small wreath. It is a very striking picture, in the manner of the example in the Steengracht collection (529). Signed in full in the left-hand bottom corner; panel, 19 inches by 16 inches. Sales. Roothaan, Amsterdam, March 29, 1826, No. 105 (1915 [florins, Brondgeest or Saportas). Amsterdam, May 14, 1832, No. 90 (1400 florins, De Vries). In the Van der Hoop collection. Now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1905 catalogue, No. 2226. A copy, on canvas, 21 inches by 17^ inches, was No. 43 in the "Catalogue of loo Paintings," 1896, of the dealer Ch. Sedelmeyer, Paris. It was in the sale of J. Goll van Frankenstein, Amsterdam, July I, 1833, No. 72 (1315 florins, Chaplin) ; and was in the collections of J. Nieuwenhuys, 1886, and G. Salting. 523*. A Merry Company in a Cottage-Room. In the centre a man and a woman sit together. It is warm in tone and very transparent in colour. It is very delicately rendered, especially the children sporting on the floor and the fiddler who is about to play. In the Fourche collection, Bordeaux (De Sonneville, p. 85). 524. A MERRY COMPANY. Five persons singing and diverting themselves at a window. It is an unattractive picture, but is certainly genuine. In the Cavens collection, Brussels. 525. A MERRY COMPANY IN AN ARBOUR. A girl places a basket full of kittens on the table ; the cat, who wants to reach them, is held by a girl seated to the left. A flute-player and another man look on. In the foreground a young woman dressed in silk, with her back to the spectator, holds a tankard to the lips of a boy who kneels on the left beside a cask. A raven pecks at the spigot of the cask. On the right a laugh- ing man with a music-book in his hand sits in an arm-chair. A woman lays her hand upon his shoulder. Behind him a jovial fellow, with a stick and a skull under his arm, raises his glass. In the foreground a little child
