A JAMES I PARCEL-GILT SILVER BEAKER

The Cosier beaker is in remarkable condition with finely engraved flower and scroll ornament heightened by delicate gilding. This type of beaker remained a popular form from the 1580s until the mid-17th century in England and also throughout Northern Europe, as can be seen by the numerous representations of similar beakers in the still life paintings from the Low Countries such as the still life painted by the Dutch artist Cornelis Kruys (b.c.1619/20-1660) illustrated here. It depicts a similar silver beaker with a herring on a pewter plate, together with a 'wan-li' bowl containing some olives and a glass 'Roemer.' The scene opposite taken from an engraving by the Delaune depicting a goldsmith's workshop shows a silversmith is raising a similar beaker at a bench in the foreground of the scene.

The engraved ornament on the Cosier beaker, in common with its shape, is also found on English beakers and examples from the Low Countries. Yvonne Hackenbroch, in her English and other Silver, The Collection of Irwin Untermeyer, New York, 1969, p. xvii, fig. 6 suggests a possible source for the floral strapwork when discussing a beaker of 1599, cat. no. 18. She illustrates the title page of a pattern book for silversmiths executed by the Dutch draughtsman and map maker Claes Janszoon Visscher (1587-1652), with designs by an anonymous artist P.R.K., Spits-Boeck Dienstich den Gout en Silversmeden om te Snÿden en Drÿven door P.R.K., published in 1617.