Covered beaker, gilded silver, engraved and chased, Poland (Breslau, Brunswick), mark of Johann Christoph Vogel, ca. 1730

Conical beaker, circular gadrooned foot, detachable lid surmounted by ball finial, the lid and body set with medallions and engraved and chased with strapwork and foliage.

Given by Dr W.L. Hildburgh

Acquisition RF: 54/993
Dr WL Hildburgh FSA Gift


The base is set with a medal of Queen Christina. The beaker is accompanied by a loose coin of Franz Max, Count Mansfeld with a note saying that it was purchased by Dr Hildburgh to replace the coin in the lid.
Walter Leo Hildburgh was one of the most dedicated and generous patrons in the history of the V&A. His name is not well-known outside the museum world, but his influence on the shaping of the collections was immense. Born in New York in 1876, he trained as a scientist. Initially his collecting interest was ethnography, but after 1914 he turned to the decorative arts. His tastes were eclectic, but he developed his closest links with the Departments of Metalwork and Sculpture. Encouraged by successive Keepers of Metalwork, he began to accumulate European silver, with the gaps in the existing collections in mind. He travelled widely on collecting expeditions, usually recording when and where he bought something, but not (frustratingly for posterity) from whom.
Hildburgh's abiding passion was the art of Spain and Portugal, and it is no coincidence that the Museum holds one of the finest collections of Hispanic silver in the world. He also fell into the charming habit of giving the Museum presents at Christmas and on his own birthday. In some ways he was a shadowy figure, living frugally in a flat surrounded by what he called `the Museum mistakes', and devoting all his resources to collecting, but he is known to have been a keen skater. From 1924 when he offered the first objects to the Museum on loan, to 1956 when the huge collection was bequeathed, Hildburgh was part of the Museum landscape. We continue to benefit from his generosity; his will set up a fund for future purchases, administered in the spirit of his earlier acquisitions.

set with coins mainly of Brunswick

The sides of this covered beaker are inset with 18 Mariengroschen coins minted for the dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg between 1668 and 1699. In the base is a medal of Queen Christina of Sweden, dated 1646. Vessels with inset silver coins were popular in Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries. They were considered decorative and since the coins and the vessel had a roughly similar silver content they did not affect the intrinsic value of the object.

M.21-1954