Please complete the form to email this item.

Beaker

Beaker

  • Place of origin:

    Strassburg (made)

  • Date:

    about 1560 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Grenter, Courakt (maker)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Silver, parcel-gilt

  • Museum number:

    6558-1859

  • Gallery location:

    Medieval and Renaissance, room 62, case 11

  • Order this image

This is an example of a monatsbecher (German for month beaker) which could be bought in sets of 12, one for each month of the year. This one is inscribed in German 'In January I drink good wine and need fine food for my pleasure'. The dining scene around the lip is an adaption of a woodcut for the month of January by the artist Hans Sebald Beham (1500-50). A detail of this frieze shows a maid servant warming her bottom in front of an oven. Beham's popular woodcuts illustrated the months using scenes of contemporary and mostly rural life. The frieze around the bottom of the beaker shows hunting scenes copied from prints by Hans Brosamer (1500-1554).

Physical description

Parcel-gilt silver beaker of flaring trumpet shape. The engraved frieze around the base shows hunters shooting ducks by a river, the frieze around the lip depicts an interior dining scene, the zodiac sign Aquarius and a cartouche containing an inscription in Gothic lettering. Two coats of arms engraved on the base.

Place of Origin

Strassburg (made)

Date

about 1560 (made)

Artist/maker

Grenter, Courakt (maker)

Materials and Techniques

Silver, parcel-gilt

Marks and inscriptions

"In cartouche on the body engraved in Gothic script: ‘Im Jenner Drink Ich / Guetten Weinn / Brauch Kostlich Speiss / zur Wollust mein’ which translates as: ‘In January I drink good wine and need fine food for my pleasure'"
"On base: town mark for Strasbourg for 1534-67; maker’s mark a fleur de lys in a shaped shield with initials CG for Courakt Grenter"
"Two coats of arms engraved on the base, unidentified."

Dimensions

Diameter: 9.60 cm (rim)
Diameter: 6.20 cm (foot)
Height: 9.50 cm

Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries

Object history note

Purchased by the Museum in 1859.

Historical context note

This is an example of a 'monatsbecher' (German for month beaker) which could be bought in sets of twelve, one for each month of the year, and often intended to be stacked one on top of the other when not in use.

This beaker is inscribed in German 'In January I drink good wine and need fine food for my pleasure'. The dining scene around the lip is an adaption of a woodcut for the month of January by the artist Hans Sebald Beham (1500-50). His series of woodcuts illustrating the months by scenes of contemporary and mostly rural life was a popular design source for goldsmiths. A detail of this frieze shows a maid servant warming her bottom in front of an oven. The frieze around the bottom of the beaker shows hunting scenes copied from prints by Hans Brosamer (1500-1554).

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Hernmarck, Carl. 2 vols., The Art of the European Silversmith 1430-1830, Sotheby Parke Bernet, London and New York, 1977, vol. 1, p. 86. [not a specific reference, but information about historical context]

Materials

Silver; Silver-gilt

Techniques

Engraving (incising); Raising

Categories

Drinking; Metalwork

Collection code

MET

Order this image
Qr_O91614
Ajax-loader