CIRCA 1600, UNMARKED

A number of cups formed as bears survive. They were mainly used at guild and corporation 'club' dinners, particularly in Germany. The bear with its collar is a representation of one of many dancing bears that were used for entertainment at Mediaeval and Renaissance fairs. A dancing bear, with chain around his body, by Leonhard Umbach, Augsburg, 1600-1605 is illustrated by H. Seling in Die Kunst der Augsburger Goldschmiede 1529-1868, Munich 1980, vol. II, fig. 155. The same maker made a pair of bears, circa 1600, holding bag-pipes, very similar in form to the present lot, which were formally in the Sydney J. Lamon Collection (Christie's London, 28 November 1973, lot 60). The Augsburg maker Gregor Bair made two examples in the 1580's, one firing a wheelock pistol, the other wearing chain mail over his shoulders and a hat (see Seling, op. cit., nos. 156 and 157).