A NUREMBERG ENGRAVED CYLINDRICAL BEAKER

CIRCA 1680

Details

A NUREMBERG ENGRAVED CYLINDRICAL BEAKER
Circa 1680
Engraved by Hermann Schwinger with four figures emblematic of the Elements, Air as a youth with a bird attached to a long string perched on his raised right hand, Water as a scantily draped figure carrying a basket of fish and holding a net, Earth carrying a spade over his left shoulder and holding a basket of flowers, and Fire as a youth holding a leafless branch standing warming his hands over a blazing log fire, the figures divided by trees and on a continuous band with distant buildings in a hilly landscape above a band of berried foliage, with applied footring and shallow kick-in base (edge of footring slightly ground to accomodate a mount)
7 in. (17.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Rothschild inv. no. AR1628.

Literature

E. Meyer-Heisig, Der Nrenberger Glasschnitt des 17. Jahrhunderts, Nuremberg, 1963, p. 87, pl. WT99.

Lot Essay

For comparable signed examples see Meyer-Heisig, op. cit., pl. WT83 (Metropolitan Museum, New York), pl. WT85 (Bayerische Landesgewerbeanstalt, Nuremberg) and pl. WT87 (Bermanisches National-Museum, Nuremberg) and B. Klesse-Hans Mayr, European Glass from 1500-1800 The Ernesto Wolf Collection, Vienna, 1987, no. 70.

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