A CONTINENTAL PARCEL-GILT SILVER-MOUNTED COCONUT CUP
THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
A CONTINENTAL PARCEL-GILT SILVER-MOUNTED COCONUT CUP

APPARENTLY UNMARKED, NORTHERN EUROPE, 17TH CENTURY

Details
A CONTINENTAL PARCEL-GILT SILVER-MOUNTED COCONUT CUP
APPARENTLY UNMARKED, NORTHERN EUROPE, 17TH CENTURY
In the form of an owl standing on two claw feet with chased tail, the coconut body carved with feathers held by hinged vertical bands with stylised fringes, the collar and detachable head naturalistically chased with feathers, the eyes with glass beads, stamped later on tail with an inventory number '28'
6 ¼ in. (16 cm.) high

Brought to you by

Giles Forster
Giles Forster

Lot Essay


Zoomorphic cups were popular in the German and the Flemish countries during the 16th and 17th centuries. Many were created using exotic and highly prized materials such as nautilus shell, ostrich eggs or coconuts. Indeed coconuts, also called 'Indian nut' or 'nut of the sea', were not only rare, but were also believed to have medicinal and magical properties. This explains why many were crafted into drinking vessels mounted in precious metals. Owls were a favoured form together with the stag, boar, lion and horse. Owl cups were often presented as wedding gifts or as a trophy at crossbow competitions. The few surviving examples are not all consistently marked and are varyingly conceived, either standing on a terrace, clawing a branch or a prey, or without a stand. This owl shares a resemblance in the stiffness of the tail, the plumage, the flat claws and shape of the head with one in the British Museum given by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, also unmarked and illustrated in V. Laloux, Le Bestiaire des Orfèvres, L'Oeil du Hibou, Lausanne, 1994, p. 139, and another marked for Straubing, circa 1567 in a private collection, illustrated op. cit., p. 132.


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