iv PIETER DE HOOCH 549 Ascribed by W. Burger (Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1866, xxi. p. 550) to J. Vermeer. Sales. Amsterdam, November 24, 1806 (300 florins). At Christie's, London, 1819 (115 : ios., Woodburn). Van Cuyck, Paris, February 7, 1866, No. 47 (1060 francs, Auguiot). Auguiot, Paris, March i, 1875, No. 12. 2640. The Game of Backgammon. Seven persons are assembled in a room with windows at the back. Two in the centre stand, playing backgammon. The floor is paved with black and white tiles. Copper, 23 inches by 33 inches. Sale. C. Sedelmeyer, Paris, May 25-28, 1907, No. 83 (^272). 265. SOLDIER IN A TAVERN. De G. 12. The soldier, wearing a yellow cloak and an orange sash, sits holding a glass in his left hand and a letter in his right. A girl with a pewter-pot stands to the right ; she wears a red skirt, an apron, and a blue bodice with white sleeves. To the left is a table covered with a Smyrna carpet. In the dark background stands a bed. It is a genuine, though late example. Signed on the tapestry to the right, at the level of the woman's head, " P d Hoogh " ; canvas, 22 inches by 17^ inches. In the possession of J. E. Goedhart, the dealer, Amsterdam, in May 1892. 266. THE CARD-PLAYERS. De G. 29. To the left, in the background of a large hall adorned with pilasters and pictures let into the wall, sit a lady and an elderly cavalier playing cards at a table covered with a Persian carpet. A younger gentleman in a slouch hat stands behind them, leaning on the stick in his right hand. A servant-girl with a tray comes forward. A dog, lying in the foreground near a second group, turns his head towards the girl. The second group consists of a gentleman and a young lady, who are sitting at a table by the hearth with a screen between them and the card-players. The cavalier has long curls, and holds his pipe in his left hand. The young lady has a glass in her right hand, and stretches her left hand to a jug on the table. The cavalier's hat hangs on a chair in the right foreground. It is a late work of inferior quality. Signed at the top to the left, "P d Hoogh"; canvas, 35 inches by 32 inches. Sales. J. Fokke and others, Amsterdam, June 29, 1814, No. 25. Comte F. de Robiano, Brussels, May i, 1837, No. 280 (1760 francs). Georg Stange of Liibeck, in Cologne, March 20, 1879, No. 45. G. Habich, Kassel, May 9, 1892, No. 79 (3120 marks, Consul Weber). Now in the collection of Consul Weber, Hamburg. 267. YOUNG WOMAN AND CAVALIERS AT THEIR WINE. Behind a table in the centre is a young woman, seen in full light, who is pouring red wine from a jug into a glass ; she wears a white kerchief on her head, a collar, and an apron. The candle on the table, throwing a yellow light upon her, is hidden by the figure of a cavalier
