goblet

Object NameArmorial Goblet

Made FromGlass, Gold, Enamel

Datepossibly 1480-1490

Place MadeItaly, Venice

TechniqueBlown, gilded, enameled, mold-blown

SizeOverall H: 19.7 cm; Rim Diam: 13.3 cm; Foot Diam: 13.4 cm

Accession Number79.3.193

Credit LineBequest of Jerome Strauss

Curatorial Area(s)

Early Modern

Exhibitions

Renaissance Venice: Life and Luxury at the Crossroads

Beyond Venice: Glass in Venetian Style, 1500-1750

On ViewEuropean Gallery

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

The coat of arms has largely been worn away. Its once elaborate gilding indicates that the owner of this goblet came from a noble family in southern Germany.

Physical DescriptionArmorial Goblet. Translucent dark blue. Blown, mold-blown; tooled, enameled, gilded. Goblet. Flat based, bell shaped bowl with pincered frill projecting at angle of base. Slightly sagging base is set directly on top of mold-blown (21 ribs) stem with wide bulge that has two progressively narrower bulges above it, and one below; joined by glue-bit to mold-blown (16 ribs) pedestal foot strengthened, at edge, by flattened ribbon of blue glass applied on upper surface. Pontil mark within apex of foot.

Knop, foot, and bowl were gilded at furnace; gold on foot was split by subsequent working to give “sprinkled” effect. Main decoration of bowl consists of two identical coats of arms on round shields, now badly worn: quarterly, 1 and 4 show two addorsed horses’ heads on plinths, or, counterchanged (horse in 4 is counterchanged opposite way from horse in 1), 2 and 3 display eagle partly covered with thin white enamel. Shields appear to be suspended from white and brownish red ribbons. Between them, San Bernardino (wavy) rays, alternately in white and red, rise from lower border, with red rays on localized gold ground. Above them are slender stalks with foliage of white and red horizontal strokes on thin gold stems that ascend between rays. Below rim is border of dotted rosettes on gold ground, with red centers alternating with green, and with “petals” in white. These rosettes run horizontally between single fillets of white dots above and red dots on gold lappets below. Above base is border of single red dots on gold ground, between fillet of single white dots above and groups of three white dots below.

Before frill was pinched, it was covered with gold leaf decorated with dots of white enamel. Gilding below rim seems to have been stretched by tooling during firing of enamel. Some of white enameling has been smeared counterclockwise on frieze below rim.
Provenance

Former Collection Oscar Bondy

Former Collection Baron L. Rothschild

Source Jerome Strauss (1893-1978)