Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Silver, Room 69, The Whiteley Galleries

Mazer

ca. 1600 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Round painted spruce or larchwood bowl on silver ring base, engraved silver vertical straps and an engraved silver lip decorated with laurel leaves; the base of the inside of the bowl has a print inscribed with the Sacred Monogram IHS.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver, painted boxwood
Brief description
Silver, Continental
Physical description
Round painted spruce or larchwood bowl on silver ring base, engraved silver vertical straps and an engraved silver lip decorated with laurel leaves; the base of the inside of the bowl has a print inscribed with the Sacred Monogram IHS.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 14.00cm
  • Height: 6.10cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Inscribed: HELGE NIEL. SEN; painted on inside: Marcus Ollsjen: Sagen; inside: IHS
  • On the upper rim: maker's mark R barred on an escutcheon, unidentified, and the town mark R in a shaped shield for Roskilde? (Oman), 2 merchants marks are cut into the foot.
Gallery label
Silver Gallery: Mazer wood bowls were made across much of medieval northern Europe, including England. They are often inscribed with the Sacred Monogram (IHS) . A Norwegian origin for this bowl is suggested by the engraved name, 'Helge Nielsen'.(26/11/2002)
Object history
From Catalogue of Scandinavian and Baltic Silver, RW Lightbown, V&A, 1975: 'The bowl was acquired as Swedish, sixteenth century. In 1949 Dr Boesen of Rosenborg Castle informed the Department that the name Neilsen was unlikely to be Swedish, but might be either Danish or Norwegian.' Roskilde is an unlikely attribution.

'The barred R is a mark well known to Norwegian scholars. The name of the goldsmith has not been identified, but he was probably from Bergen and working presumably c. 1600.'
Production
Mark R, unidentified
Bibliographic reference
Catalogue of Scandinavian and Baltic Silver, RW Lightbown, V&A, 1975; Scandinavian Domestic Silver, Charles Oman, V&A 1959
Collection
Accession number
M.38-1929

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Record createdFebruary 9, 2004
Record URL
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