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The Alexander Goblet

Goblet and Cover
1840 (engraved)
Artist/Maker
Harrach (made)
Böhm, August (engraver)
Place of origin
Mistrovice (engraved)

Cut and intaglio engraved glass footed goblet and cut cover. The engraving depicts Alexander the Great defeating the Persians at the Battle of the Granicus River (334 BC) after the painting 'Le Passage du Granique' of 1665 by Charles Le Brun (1619-90) in the Louvre Museum, Paris (inv. no. 2894).

Object details

Category
Glass
Object type
Goblet and cover
TitleThe Alexander Goblet (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Wheel-cut and wheel-engraved colourless glass
Glass
Cut
Engraved
Brief description
Goblet and cover engraved with a scene of Alexander the Great defeating the Persians, by August Böhm, Bohemia, 1840
Physical description
Cut and intaglio engraved glass footed goblet and cut cover. The engraving depicts Alexander the Great defeating the Persians at the Battle of the Granicus River (334 BC) after the painting 'Le Passage du Granique' of 1665 by Charles Le Brun (1619-90) in the Louvre Museum, Paris (inv. no. 2894).
Dimensions
  • Height: 58.4cm
  • Weight: 5.44kg
separately, goblet weighs 4.06kg and lid 1.38kg
Style
Biedermeier
Marks and inscriptions
Inscribed, 'Gravirt v. Aug. Böhm aus Meistersdorf in Böhmen 1840'.
Translation
Engraved by August Böhm from Meistersdorf in Bohemia, 1840
Credit line
Private Collection
Object history
Exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The original cover was broken before it could be displayed so a replacement was made by the Harrach Glasshouse, Czech Republic. The goblet is very slightly pinkish in hue compared with the replacement cover which is virtually colourless.
Production
Mistrovice was known as Meistersdorf at time of Böhm's birth
Subject depicted
Alexander the Great
Bibliographic references
  • Charles R. Hadjamach: British Glass 1800-1914,1991, pp.156-158.
  • Paul von Lichtenberg: Glasgravuren des Biedermeier, 2004, pp.193-195
  • See Ceramics & Glass Dept Object Information File for another version (the Granicus Goblet) dated 1845.
  • Apsley Pellatt: Curiosities of Glassmaking, 1849
  • Gustav Pazaurek, Gläser Der Empire- und Biedermeierzeit, 1923,pls.38 & 39.
  • Walter Spiegl, Glas des Historismus, 1980, p.89ff.
  • Simon Cottle, The Granicus Goblet, The Glass Cone, Spring 2009, issue no.86, pp.13-16.
Other number
9489 - Glass gallery number
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
LOAN:CERANON.1-2005

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Record createdMarch 14, 2005
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O110204/the-alexander-goblet-goblet-and-cover-böhm-august/
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