A tankard with hinged lid, carved in the solid from a large burr growth of maple, the main body carved with a procession of apostles with their emblems, the feet and thumb-piece in ivory and with a circlet of ivory beads on the cover. Possibly Norwegian, 1650-1700.

A tankard with hinged lid, carved in the solid from a large burr growth of maple. set with three turned ivory feet, small ivory beads in a circle on the lid and a turned and reeded thumb piece in ivory. The body of the tankard is carved with a low band of foliate ornament surmounted by an inscribed bank with, above, a procession of the twelve apostles with their emblems, plus the figure of Christ and of the Angel Gabriel, around the main body of the tankard. The lid is carved with formal foliate bands enclosing a scene of the Nativity. The S-scrolled handle is carved with formal motifs. The sides of the tankard show signs of worm damage. The tankard is lined in the body and the underside of the lid with silver or a silvered metal, this probably added in the nineteenth century, perhaps with the idea of strengthening the body of the tankard, which shows worm damage. .

Sold from the collections at Ecton Hall, Northamptonshire. Sotheby's 14th October 1955 (Part III of the sale of Sotheby's Heirlooms, from Ecton Hall), lot 28. W A Thorpe noted in the acquisition Registered File (RF 56/3802) that it may have formed part of the collection of James Sotheby (1655-1702), who had many connections in Germany and the Low Countries, or whether it came into the Sotheby family with Ecton Hall, in 1780, when William Sotheby (a minor poet) married the heiress Mary Isted (1759-1834).

Purchased by the Museum from F. Partridge & Sons, 144 New Bond Street (Registered File 56/3802). At the time it was noted that there were two small, loose pieces of the handle inside the tankard. The wood was wrongly noted as beech. It was intended to show the tankard at the entrance to Gallery 74, with the noted 'Glastonbury Cup' (actually a very similar tankard) which the Museum was seeking to borrow from the Arundell family. Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell, had fought for the Holy Roman Emperor in the 1590s and was created a count of the Holy Roman Empire by Rudolf II in 1595 in Prague, so it is likely that his own tankard, very similar to this one, was acquired in Central Europe.

Such tankards were valued as virtuoso pieces of carving and were frequently found in collectors' cabinets as items of wonder, as well as functioning drinking vessels. The large piece of burrwood required to make such a piece would have been unusual and the curled grain may have been valued for its close visual similarity to amber or hardstones, both materials that featured frequently in the collections of artworks made by by kings and princes. A similar tankard was in the collections of the Arundell family of Wardour Castl, Wiltshire in the eighteenth century and carried a story that it had been given to the family for safe-keeping by the last Abbot of Glastonbury. It seems more likely that the tankard was brought back to Wardour by Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell, who fought for the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in the 1590s and was created a Knight of the Holy Roman Empire in 1595 in Prague.

Such tankards were valued as virtuoso pieces of carving and were frequently found in collectors' cabinets as items of wonder, as well as functioning drinking vessels. The large piece of burrwood needed for this (taken from the base of a tree, where the growth of multiple small shoots or suckers created the curled grain) would have been highly valued, and the carver who made it would have needed particular skill to work in wood with such a curling and uneven grain. The wood may have been valued for its close visual similarity to amber or hardstones, both materials that featured frequently in the collections of artworks made by by kings and princes. When the piece was newly made, it would have been much lighter in colour, more like amber. The decoration of the main body shows a procession of the apostles, with Christ and the Archangel Gabriel. The cover is carved with a scene of the Adoration of the Magi, which may suggest that it was a Christmas gift from or to a nobleman.

W.4-1957