Schloss Amsoldingen: the contents of a Bernese manor house

After Rümligen, Amsoldingen once again gave us the honour of including the contents of a Bernese château in our auction. Its most famous châtelaine was probably Madame de Meuron (1882-1980). The present château, in private ownership, is the former provostry of the collegiate chapter of Amsoldingen, whose origins probably lie in the 10th century.

A thousand years of ownership

Following economic difficulties, the Amsoldingen chapter was dissolved in 1484 with the consent of the Pope and incorporated into the newly founded collegiate chapter of St Vincent in Bern, which in 1496 sold the provostry together with its land and lake to the Bernese merchant Barthlome May. Over the centuries the château changed hands several times, until Beat Ludwig Tscharner (1801-1873) had it rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style.

Patrician portraits and a labyrinth never built

Among the roughly 250 lots were oil portraits of members of Bernese patrician families, silver items, an Old Master painting by Adam Willaerts and two pictures by Albrecht Kauw. These were joined by a rare Meissen tureen in the form of a hen with seven chicks — and the model of a labyrinth for the château garden that was never realised. The portrait of Franz Ludwig von Erlach, dated 1634 and estimated at CHF 6,000, achieved a hammer price of CHF 8,000 at the auction.

All the items from Schloss Amsoldingen were auctioned at the Spring Auction 2022.