The discovery of the signature “F.v. Mieris F. 1667” confirms the old attribution to Frans van Mieris, the master from Leiden, also known as Mieris the Elder and widely considered one of the greatest practitioners of Dutch genre painting.

The golden tone of his work led to the belief that the artist painted on gold leaf, a notion that was recently refuted when it was demonstrated that this effect was the by-product of a meticulous technique deriving from the chiaroscuro he had learned from Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), who regarded van Mieris as his most accomplished pupil. The composition here is simple, free from any symbolic intent despite the meticulous arrangement of the items on the table. The play of highly pronounced diagonals, softened by suggested verticals, helps to create volume and depth in an enclosed environment.