Beaker, partially gilded silver, embossed, chased and engraved, Norway (Drammen), mark of Peder Johansen Kruse, 1767

Barrel bodied beaker, inside gilt, on 3 plain ball feet, the body embossed and chased in Floral Baroque style, between a line of punched dots above base and below rim, gilded band above upper line of dots with engraved inscription.

Biog: Peder Johansen Kruse (B. 1732, master 1763, burgher in Stromso 1764, d. between 1785 and 1797).
From Catalogue of Scandinavian and Baltic Silver, RW Lightbown, V&A, 1975, p103-4: 'The figures 63 in the mark were wrongly interpreted as indicating the date 1663 [when first acquired], according to a system known to have been current in Scandinavia during the 18th-century' 1767 is likely to be the date when the beaker was made or when the silversmith became a master, as some silversmiths kept a special year in their marks. This beaker a late example of a type found in Scandinavia from the late 17th-century.

'Peter Moller Klein (1736-80) whose name appears in the inscription on the beaker, was wealthy merchant, ship-owner and timber exporter who lived in Tangen in Drammen, and also owned an estate called Austad in Skoger, near Drammen. HGis wife, Anna Catherina Lohrmann was born in Kongsberg in 1740 and died in Christiansfeld in 1801. They were married on 25 October 1765.'

Stromso (Drammen), Norway

Peter Moller Klein (1736-80) whose name appears in the inscription on this beaker, was a wealthy merchant, ship-owner and timber exporter who lived in Tangen in Drammen. As Norway was ruled by Denmark until 1814, it had no royal court so merchants and wealthy farmers provided the main market for silver wares.

M.41-1925