flask

Object NameHeraldic Flask

Enameler Ignaz Preissler (German, 1676-1741)

Made FromNon-lead glass, enamel

Date1720-1730

Place MadeBohemia, probably Brasov (Kronstadt)

TechniqueMold-blown, cut, engraved, enameled, polished

SizeOverall H: 20.9 cm, W: 12.3 cm, D: 8.9 cm

Accession Number78.3.3

Curatorial Area(s)

Early Modern

On ViewEuropean Gallery

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

The use of transparent enamels to decorate glass vessels was an important German innovation. This flask, which bears the arms of the Loen von Anhalt-Dernstadt in Saxony-Anhalt, probably belonged to a set contained in a traveling case. It was enameled by Ignaz Preissler (1676-1741), who worked as a painter of porcelain and glass in Kronstadt, Bohemia. He used a variety of sources for his painting. The image of the young Bacchus shown on this flask is derived from a woodprint by Jost Amman (1539-1591) that was contained in a book of illustrations published in Frankfurt in 1578. That book was widely used as a design source by decorators of glass and ceramics. The flask is painted in black and red, with added touches of purple. The inscription is translated, “We drink in the Palatine way so that not a drop is left from which a fly could quench its thirst.”

Physical DescriptionColorless non-lead glass; mold-blown, cut, engraved, enameled. Tall bottle with eight flat sides; short, cylindrical neck, with polished rim, ground for a stopper; rounded shoulders with polished circular facets and stylized flowers; black enameled insects scattered on the facets and shoulders; polished flat faces with rounded tops on the sides, and flat panels with pointed tops at the corners; outlined with cut grooves on the top; enameled decoration of a nude fat man seated on a barrel, a fallen urn at his feet, holding a tazza filled with grapes; in the background, a masonry wall with plants growing from it, fruit trees at either side; on the sides and background, a landscape scene depicting picking grapes by two men while another man dumps grapes into a bucket; on the right, a hut with a man bringing grapes to a barrel where a man stomps on grapes and the juice flows out a spigot into a basin; two barrels in the background; on the center face, a town with towers; above, a coat of arms, with tied palm fronds below; inscription above; the bottom rim chamfered; polished, flat base with polished concave circular facet in the center, surrounded by oval facets and radial grooves, to suggest a flower.
Provenance

Source Sotheby & Co. - 1978