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

Beaker

1733 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Merchant's Guild of Stolp was given or commissioned this beaker in 1773. The ship engraved on the body may refer to the city's maritime trade history, as Stolp was once a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a rich trading association based around the Baltic sea. The inscription above the ship translates as 'he governs fortune by skill'.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver, parcel-gilt, engraved
Brief description
Beaker, partially gilt, raised and engraved, Poland (Stolp or Schlawe, Pomerania), maker's mark unknown, 1733
Physical description
Silver beaker, tapering gently towards the base, gilded around the rim of the base and lip. The interior also gilt. Engraved with an inscription and the crest of the merchants' guild in Stolp (or Schlawe, Pomerania [modern Poland]).
Dimensions
  • Foot diameter: 6.5cm
  • Lip diameter: 8.5cm
  • Height: 10.8cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Der Kauffmans zumfft * Becher zu stolpe 1733 (German, engraved around part of the lip of the beaker.)
    Translation
    The beaker of the merchants' guild in Stolp 1733
  • Fortunam arte regit (Latin; the motto engraved above the device of a ship on the side of the beaker. The device and motto are both enclosed in a laurel wreath.)
    Translation
    He rules fortune by skill
  • Stamped on the underside of the beaker: Unidentified maker's mark 'M P' in an oval punch Town assay mark for Schlawe or Stolp (Pomerania [modern Poland]) for 1733, a lion rampant in an arch-shaped punch A mark consisting of the number 12 stamped above the letter ' L', in a shield-shaped punch
Gallery label
  • BEAKER Silver, parcel-gilt. Town mark of Stolpe (Pomerania). Maker unidentified. Dated 1733. Engraved, "The beaker of the merchant's guild of Stolpe" (transl.) 762-1904(Pre-2000)
  • Silver Gallery: The Merchant's Guild of Stolp was given or commissioned this beaker in 1773. The ship engraved on the body may refer to the city's maritime trade history, as Stolp was once a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a rich trading association based around the Baltic sea. The inscription above the ship translates as 'he governs fortune by skill'.(26/11/2002)
Object history
The maker of the beaker - 'M P' - is yet to be identified. The Museum purchased the beaker in 1904 from G. Torck.

Historical significance: This beaker represents a form popular in Northern Europe from the sixteenth through to the eighteenth centuries. It may originally have had a lid and been part of a set that stacked together when not in use (for seventeenth-century examples, see for example Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst, vol. I, part 1 (plates), pp.926-7, or the beakers reproduced in Leistikow (1996)).
Production
Unidentified maker's mark 'M P' in an oval punch, struck on the base of the beaker.
Summary
The Merchant's Guild of Stolp was given or commissioned this beaker in 1773. The ship engraved on the body may refer to the city's maritime trade history, as Stolp was once a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a rich trading association based around the Baltic sea. The inscription above the ship translates as 'he governs fortune by skill'.
Bibliographic references
  • Oman, Charles. German Domestic Silver of the Eighteenth Century. Small picture books (Victoria and Albert Museum),no. 58. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1965.
  • Rosenberg, Marc. Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen, vol. III (Deutschland N - Z) (Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt, 1925).
  • Tebbe, Karin, et al. Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1541-1868. 2 vols. Nuremberg: Verlag des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 2007. ISBN: 9783936688160 (complete set)
  • Leistikow, Annelore. Baltisches Silver. Lüneberg: Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk, 1996. ISBN: 3922296831.
Collection
Accession number
762-1904

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Record createdFebruary 9, 2004
Record URL
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