A very good sand picture of sheep by Benjamin Zobel

A very good sand picture of sheep by Benjamin Zobel, showing two sheep on a bed of straw in a rustic barn, the reverse handwritten in ink ‘Sand Picture Mid-17^th [sic] century Benjamin Zobell’ and on an applied label stating ‘From J M Baker to Martineau Williams, painted in Marble Dust by M. Zobell ?Black of England’.  English, circa 1835.

Benjamin Zobel (1762 – 1830) was employed by the Prince Regent’s chef Louis Weltje, and became a `Table Decker’ at Windsor Castle.  The custom of `Table Decking’ had been introduced into England by George III, where the table cloth at dinner was elaborately decorated with designs of coloured sands, marble dust, powdered glass or bread crumbs. Zobel became a skilled confectioner and was entrusted with the pictures made in coloured sugars that decorated the huge tarts served at banquets.  The method he employed for making sugar patterns was identical to that which he used to make his sand pictures; that is the sugar, or sand, was shaken through a cut and pleated playing cards.