File:The Wallace Collection (39544229151).jpg

Silver gilt sculpture of an ostrich holding in its beak a horseshoe (symbol of the Society of the Ostrich in Altdorf), by Elias Zorer, Augsburg, c.1600, height 42 cm. Wallace Collection, London, Inv: W102, Location: Sixteenth Century Gallery [1].

"This majestic-looking ostrich statuette was made by the Augsburg silversmith Elias Zorer (master c. 1586–died 1625). The South German city of Augsburg was a leading centre of goldsmithing in Europe, renowned for the high quality silver objects produced there ... The neck of this statue was originally detachable, suggesting that it may have been used as a cup, and it was only pinned at a later date .... The base of the statue features engraved coats of arms, recently identified as having beloned to leading families of the Swiss Canton of Uri. They were members of the Society of the Ostrich in Altdorf, who commissioned the statuette in 1599. This was probably a shooting brotherhood consisting of prominent citizens. The society's symbol was an ostrich with a horseshoe" .... Sir Richard Wallace acquired it in 1872, the year after Queen Victoria had made him a baronet in recognition of his charitable work during the Siege of Paris and the Commune. The coat of arms which he was granted in 1871 included an ostrich’s head with a horseshoe, which featured as the crest of the Wallace family of Craigie Castle in Scotland, but issuant from a ducal crown. This is believed to have been the family of Sir Richard Wallace's mother Agnes Wallace (or Agnes Jones). The Roman author Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) in his Natural History incorrectly wrote about the ostrich that it can digest anything (voracious). This was possibly the source of a popular myth that it can digest metal, and the reason why the bird is commonly depicted holding a horseshoe in its beak" (Catalogue entry, Wallace Collection, W102[2]).