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This tankard was wheel-engraved to mark the 25th wedding anniversary of Matthys Berg and Jacoba Momber in 1742 (their marriage is recorded on January 5, 1717). Johann Franz Trümper (1699–1748) was the son of Johann Friedrich Trümper (1669–1757), who had worked with his brother-in-law Franz Gondelach before he set up his independent practice. Johann Franz was Gondelach’s godson, and he may have been trained by Gondelach as a glass cutter and engraver. Despite the importance of Gondelach’s and Trümper’s workshops, Johann Franz is the only one of the Trümpers who is known to have signed a couple of his pieces during this period. The tankard is decorated with three cartouches. One bears the simply rendered monograms of Matthys Berg and Jacoba Momber, while the other two are engraved with allegorical representations of love and friendship. The use of emblematic depictions—primarily in printed media, but also as ornamentation in the decorative arts—and the study of their iconography were popular during the 17th century and still fashionable, as this finely executed object suggests, a century later. The inscriptions on the tankard, unlike those that were used in royal contexts, are in German, and not in Latin or French. The latter two languages were spoken at the royal court, while the Berg and Momber families conversed in German, presumably in a local dialect. For additional information on Trümper, see Franz Adrian Dreier, “Franz Gondelach: Baroque Glass Engraving in Hesse,” Journal of Glass Studies, v. 38, 1996, pp. 79–81, and cat. no. 52, pp. 172–173.

Germany, Hesse, Altmunden

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