beaker

Object NameBeaker with Prunts

Made FromGlass

Date1200-1399

TechniqueBlown, applied

SizeOverall H: 9.3 cm, Diam: 8 cm

Accession Number2009.3.50

Curatorial Area(s)

Exhibitions

The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology, 1100-1550

Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

This small beaker is decorated with prunts (blobs of glass applied to the wall of the vessel). Four rows of prunts occupy the space between a horizontal trail at the junction of the rim and the wall and a second horizontal trail at the junction of the wall and the base. Each row contains eight prunts, and they are arranged in quincunx (as groups of five, with one at each corner and one in the middle of a square). Although fragments of prunted beakers have been found on archaeological sites in many parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and even farther afield, relatively few complete examples exist. The Museum has just one related object (87.3.33), but its shape and the form of the prunts are different from this new example. The Museum’s related object is published in Erwin Baumgartner and Ingeborg Krueger, Phönix aus Sand und Asche: Glas des Mittelalters, Munich: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1988, pp. 200– 201, no. 178; and “Recent Important Acquisitions,” Journal of Glass Studies, v. 30, 1988, p. 103, no. 4. Phönix aus Sand und Asche (pp. 194–217, nos. 166–204) contains a generous selection of prunted beakers, mainly from find-places and collections in Germany.

Place Made

Central Europe

Physical DescriptionTransparent pale yellowish green glass with very small bubbles; blown, applied. Beaker: cylindrical. Rim plain, without rounded lip; mouth shaped like funnel; wall almost vertical; base plain, with low kick; small pontil mark (D. about 1 cm). Applied decoration consists of single register extending from continuous horizontal trail at junction of mouth and wall to similar, but thicker horizontal trail, which forms low foot ring at junction of wall and base. Frieze contains four horizontal rows of prunts arranged in quincunx. Each row contains eight prunts and each prunt is of medium size and has rounded tip.
Provenance

Provenance Remark

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