Beaker
1720-1730 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This small drinking cup illustrates the taste for luxury at the Royal court in Dresden. So-called Zwischengoldglas was very difficult and time consuming to make and therefore extremely expensive. The glass makers carefully ground and polished two glass cups, so that the inner cup would fit exactly into the outer. They covered the inside of the outer cup with gold leaf, which they then engraved with a design. The inner cup was gilded on the outside then painted over with marbling. After decoration, the glass maker would stick the two cups together and carefully seal them at the top to make them waterproof and fit for use. This technique correspond to instructions given in the "Ars Vitraria Experimentalis", Johann Kunckel's celebrated treatise on glassmaking of 1679. A number of glasses with this decoration survive, and the group has recently been attributed to Dresden in Saxony.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | See reference for Frances Federer, <i>Gold Leaf, Paint and Glass,</i> p. 5. The technique for this piece is thought to be as follows:
'Two glasses blown, ground and polished to fit exactly within one another.
Glass 1 outer. Inside:water gilded, engraved (upside down and in reverse). All extra gold removed. Painted overall in <i>faux</i> agate, with oil-based paints.
Glass 2: inner. Outisde: water gilded. Maybe protected with with a varnish of some kind.
The two are assembled and sealed at the rim with a resin. The glass would have been usable as a vessel.' |
| Brief description | Glass beaker, gold-sandwich glass, probably Dresden, 1720-30, marbled and engraved gilt decoration showing a monkey playing a guitar. |
| Physical description | Small beaker constructed from two clear, colourless glass beakers with internal painterd marbling and engraved leaf-gold Zwischengoldglas 'gold-sandwich', decoration showing a monkey wearing a hat with plume and playing a guitar. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Wilfred Buckley Collection |
| Object history | Formerly in the Wilfred Buckley Collection |
| Production | See Axel von Saldern, 'Zwischengoldglaser mit marmorierter Lackbemalung', Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums (1976) pp. 133-42 and fig. 9. |
| Summary | This small drinking cup illustrates the taste for luxury at the Royal court in Dresden. So-called Zwischengoldglas was very difficult and time consuming to make and therefore extremely expensive. The glass makers carefully ground and polished two glass cups, so that the inner cup would fit exactly into the outer. They covered the inside of the outer cup with gold leaf, which they then engraved with a design. The inner cup was gilded on the outside then painted over with marbling. After decoration, the glass maker would stick the two cups together and carefully seal them at the top to make them waterproof and fit for use. This technique correspond to instructions given in the "Ars Vitraria Experimentalis", Johann Kunckel's celebrated treatise on glassmaking of 1679. A number of glasses with this decoration survive, and the group has recently been attributed to Dresden in Saxony. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Other number | 8957 - Glass gallery number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.401-1936 |
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| Record created | December 13, 1997 |
| Record URL |
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