A brush mount, of oval form, chased in high relief with Apollo reaching for Daphne as she turns into a laurel bush, her father Peneus sitting in the right background.

The maker of this brush mount was one of the most important and famous silversmiths in 17th-century Frisia. Of the four generations of silversmiths the Baardt family produced, Claes Baardt was the second and the most skilled. He was born in Bolsward in 1628 as the oldest child of the marriage of silversmith Frank Rienks Baardt and Lyuwkien Clases Allinga. On 1 December 1640, aged 12, he was recorded in the Bolsward register of goldsmiths and silversmiths as an apprentice to his father. On 3 May 1654 he  enrolled as a master in the guild, having successfully submitted his masterpiece. In all propability, he took over the running of the silversmithing business from his father.
Claes Fransen Baardt did not confine his activities to silversmithing. He also invested in property. The Bolsward orphanage records show that, like his father, Baardt traded in woollens and textiles, and also looked after his mother-in-law's business interests. In the year he became a master, he married Siucke Harckes, a daughter of the cloth merchant Harcke Gerrits and Trincke Rinnerts; she was a good match. Through Rinnert, Siucke's brother, Baardt became a connection of the famous Van der Lely family of silversmiths in Leeuwarden. When Rinnert died, his widow Ijnske Nannes Okma married Frederick Jarichs van der Lely.

Provenance:
Probably collection Pieter Mulier (1783 Oudenbosch - Bolsward 1866) and Margaretha Mulier-Haitsma, by descent to their son
Collection Tjepke Mulier (1815 Bolsward - Haarlem 1883), grietman (mayor) at Wonseradeel, and mrs Roelina J. Mulier-Albarda (1822-1898), Haarlem, by descent to their daughter
Collection Countess Eldina Alegonda Binsina van Limburg Stirum-Mulier (1855 Witmarsum - The Hague 1941); Thence by descent until 2009; Private collection, Netherlands

Exhibited:
Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Tentoonstelling van Kunstvoorwerpen in vroegere eeuwen uit edele metalen vervaardigd, 1880, no. 654;
Friesch zilver, Leeuwarden, Fries Museum, 15 augustus – 15 september 1927, no. 713