A CENTRAL EUROPEAN ENGRAVED 'PYROPENGLAS' CYLINDRICAL BEAKER of light-brown-tinted metal, the two zones of decoration divided by a thin line and bordered by similar lines, the upper zone engraved in polished tiefschnitt with a continuous hunting scene in a woodland landscape, the terrain with stones and grasses, depicting two hounds in pursuit of a stag followed by a running figure blowing a horn, wearing a feathered hat and holding a spear, and with a large building, the lower zone with swags of stylised fruit and foliage suspended from loops pendant from the central dividing line and alternating with bunches of grapes and foliage, the foliage with incised vein markings, the lower zone applied with forty-four facet-cut garnets (böhmischen rosette), the applied footring with overlapping ends (small part of footring lacking, fourteen garnets lacking), Bohemia, probably 1630-40

Details
A CENTRAL EUROPEAN ENGRAVED 'PYROPENGLAS' CYLINDRICAL BEAKER of light-brown-tinted metal, the two zones of decoration divided by a thin line and bordered by similar lines, the upper zone engraved in polished tiefschnitt with a continuous hunting scene in a woodland landscape, the terrain with stones and grasses, depicting two hounds in pursuit of a stag followed by a running figure blowing a horn, wearing a feathered hat and holding a spear, and with a large building, the lower zone with swags of stylised fruit and foliage suspended from loops pendant from the central dividing line and alternating with bunches of grapes and foliage, the foliage with incised vein markings, the lower zone applied with forty-four facet-cut garnets (böhmischen rosette), the applied footring with overlapping ends (small part of footring lacking, fourteen garnets lacking), Bohemia, probably 1630-40
10cm. high

Lot Essay

The present example, in the metal-colour, construction and decoration closely follows the covered beaker in the Bayerischen Nationalmuseum, Munich (see Rainer Rückert, Die Glassammlung des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums München, p. 134, pl. XX, no. 472 and pp. 180-81). Whilst the exact dating and origin of these beakers remains speculative, Rückert, ibid. draws attention to the dress of the hunters depicted on the Munich example which suggests a date after 1615 and that the cut of the böhmische rosette would apparently exclude a date before 1630 (see 'Princely Magnificence, Court Jewels of the Renaissance, 1500-1630' Exhibition Catalogue, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1980, no. 125 and p. 25). Olga Drahotová, 'Comments on Caspar Lehmann, Central European Glass and Hardstone Engraving', Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 23, 1981, p. 43, notes that the Munich example had been mentioned in connection with Lehmann, but she adds that this vessel is probably of Nuremburg or Bohemian origin and later in date

Both Nuremburg and Bohemian glassworkers used this 'rosette' decoration, mention being made of Claudius vom Creutz in 1609 who enjoyed Imperial patronage and whose work was continued by his sons (see Theodor Hampe, Das Altnürnberger Kunstglas, 1919, p. 25). Thuringian glasshouses produced related vessels with similar engraving but of lesser quality and in this context Rückert notes an example closely related in form also set with pyropes exhibited in Prague, 1891, but in this instance suggests a date of the last quarter of the 17th century

Glasses set with gem-stones became popular in the early 18th century in both Bohemia and Potsdam, see Rudolf von Strasser/Walter Spiegl, Dekoriertes Glas, p. 244, no. 101. and, therefore, present and Munich examples would appear to be the earliest extant examples of this technique. Stylistically, the engraving on the present beaker combined with the applied böhmischen rosette would suggest a Bohemian origin
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