Kurfürstenhumpen

Object NameKurfursten humpen

Made FromGlass, Enamel

Date1656

Place MadeGermany

TechniqueBlown, enameled, gilded

SizeOverall H: 23.5 cm, Diam (rim): 11.8 cm

Accession Number57.3.78

Credit LineGift of Edwin J. Beinecke

Curatorial Area(s)

Early Modern

Exhibitions

Title Unknown (Schlossmuseum des Marktes Murnau)

On ViewEuropean Gallery

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

The upper part depicts the Holy Roman Emperor and the seven Electors (Kurfürsten in German). The Electors were the most senior princes in the Empire. This Humpen was probably associated with a guild of paper makers, for the lower part shows stages in the process of paper making. The inscriptions include well-known sayings referring to drinking and thinking of God.

Physical DescriptionKurfursten humpen. Clear glass with many minute bubbles and impurities and grey tinge; free-blown, enameled and gilded. Almost cylindrical body with pushed up base having rough pontil mark, applied foot ring; enamel decoration: the decoration is divided into two zones; on the upper zone the German Emperor and the seven Electors on white horses proceeding to the left and accompanied by their names and titles and: "ANNO 1656"; in between below rim little star-like ornaments and white dashes; they ride on a grass strip; a gilded band richly decorated with ovals and diamonds formed by white beads and enclosing and accompanied by red, white and blue dots and dashes; the band being framed above and below by rows of white beads and U-shaped lines; the lower zone is filled with scenes of the process of paper making; a paper maker who is standing to the right of the press and holds a goblet in his right hand, either the donor or the one who has been given this Humpen; a man works at the press, above in the two free spaces the letters "SS"; another man stands behind a pole vat in the form of a large barrel, taking from a tub enough pulp to cover the frame; on the edge of the vat lies a long ladle; a fourth man stands behind a sizing vat into which he will dip an unfinished sheet of paper which he took from the man to his left; in between leaf and flower sprays as well as little white curly ornaments; most of the upper space is filled with the following inscription: "Wer mich austrinckt zu ider zeitt den gesegnes die Heilige dreifaltigkeitt. Gluck undt ungluck ist alle morgen mein frustuck. Trinck undt is, gottes nicht vergis An gottes segen ist alles gelegen."; white dashes on the foot ring (the rhymes contain four very well known sayings referring to drinking and to the thinking of God).
Provenance

Former Collection Schloss Museum, Berlin - 1921-1935

Former Collection Margarate Oppenheim

Source Edwin J. Beinecke (d. 1957)
possibly acquired in 1935