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Lot Essay
Animal-form cups were particularly popular in Germany and German-speaking Switzerland and were used at corporation, guild and club dinners by their wealthy members. The coat-of-arms of three powder horns on the present bear-form cup may well be those of a Swiss hunting or shooting club.
Extant bear cups include the superbly naturalistic Nuremberg example by Hans auf der Berg, circa 1600 formerly in the collection of Princess Salimah Aga Khan (Christie's Geneva, 19 May 1998, lot 179). Two bears made in Augsburg and based on the chained dancing bears so popular as entertainment in Mediaeval and Renaissance fairs are recorded - one by Leonard Umbach, 1600-1605, and the other by Marx Merzenbach dating from some seventy years later (H. Seling, Die Kunst der Augsburger Goldschmiede, 1529-1868, Munich, 1980, vol. II, fig. 155 and A. Gruber, Silverware, New York, 1982, p.67, fig. 54, respectively). Umbach also made a pair of bears, circa 1600, holding bag-pipes, which were formerly in the Sydney J. Lamon Collection (Christie's London, 28 November 1973, lot 60). Another Augsburg maker, Gregor Bair, made two examples in the 1580's, one firing a wheelock pistol, the other wearing chain mail over his shoulder and a hat (see Seling, op. cit., nos. 156 and 157).
Extant bear cups include the superbly naturalistic Nuremberg example by Hans auf der Berg, circa 1600 formerly in the collection of Princess Salimah Aga Khan (Christie's Geneva, 19 May 1998, lot 179). Two bears made in Augsburg and based on the chained dancing bears so popular as entertainment in Mediaeval and Renaissance fairs are recorded - one by Leonard Umbach, 1600-1605, and the other by Marx Merzenbach dating from some seventy years later (H. Seling, Die Kunst der Augsburger Goldschmiede, 1529-1868, Munich, 1980, vol. II, fig. 155 and A. Gruber, Silverware, New York, 1982, p.67, fig. 54, respectively). Umbach also made a pair of bears, circa 1600, holding bag-pipes, which were formerly in the Sydney J. Lamon Collection (Christie's London, 28 November 1973, lot 60). Another Augsburg maker, Gregor Bair, made two examples in the 1580's, one firing a wheelock pistol, the other wearing chain mail over his shoulder and a hat (see Seling, op. cit., nos. 156 and 157).