Updated 21 October 2023
With further information on the Clare College Cambridge Poison Tankard.
The Group of Late 16th South German Century Silver Filigree and Silver Gilt Tankards.
Some notes. (post in preparation).
There are possibly ten of these tankards extant.
Currently I have one image of a Kremlin Museum Tankard.
It is dangerous to make comparisons but given the similarities in techniques on these tankards I suggest that they all came from the same workshop.
Again dangerous to make sweeping generalisations but these tankards perhaps represent the first modern European objects to use silver filigree in an openwork or three dimensional fashion without being attached to sheet material backing.
They retain an almost Gothic feel in the regular spacing of the filigree whilst espousing Renaissance styling, and for that reason I include images of a couple of related filigree caskets and Silver Gilt Pomanders which retain the Gothic influence.
1.The Gilbert Collection. Victoria and Albert Museum formerly James de Rothschild (see below).
2 .The St Petersburg Tankards - It appears that there were possibly originally four of these tankards in the collection (I have been unable to locate photographs of all of these tankards - but I have discovered a photographs of an electrotype copy of one of them in the Metropolitan Museum, New York).
3. The Kremlin Tankard, Moscow.
4. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (inv. n°997.158.83) (see below).
5. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. (see below)
6. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich; The Schroder collection(1987, cat.20);
7. Schatzkammer des Deutschen Ordens, Vienna (see below).
8. Clare College, Cambridge. (see below).
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A "Chrystalline glasse and cover garnished with Wyre
work, appraised at £30", in the Treasury of Charles I was perhaps similar
to this piece.
Info above from Om Filigran pub. Oslo University press. 1959.
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The V and A give the maker of their tankard as Hans Harder of Ulm, based on similarities with the marked tankard in the treasury of the Deutsches Orden in Vienna, bearing the same maker's mark, but this will need to be confirmed.
1. Rock Crystal, Silver Gilt and Silver Filigree Tankard.
Possibly Hans Harder of Ulm, Germany.
Circa 1550 - 1575.
Gilbert Collection.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Formerly in the collection of Baroness James de Rothschild
Museum.
Height: 21.3cm Width: 13.5cm Depth: 11cm.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
This piece is similar to a number of tankards believed to have been made in Augsburg or Ulm in the late sixteenth century.
A tankard from the treasury of the Deutschen Orden in Vienna, bearing the same maker's mark, draws the closest parallels and suggests that this object has undergone later minor alterations, including the addition of the mermaid-shaped feet.
The inscription on the shield 'Joh: von Aicherau K:K: Berg Rath' is a later feature and is likely to signify ownership.
Description and images from
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156624/tankard-harder-hans/
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2. Another Similar 16th Century German Tankard.
Silver Gilt and Silver Filigree.
18.5 cms.
Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Russia.
3. The Kremlin Tankards.
Whilst I have so far been unable to locate all of the four Kremlin Museum versions - we are lucky to have one electrotype copy which is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Height 28.6 cms.
Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1883.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/186574
This tankard is one of a small group of silver gilt and silver filigree mounted glass or rock crystal tankards made in Southern Germany during the second half of the sixteenth century.
This tankard has reappeared at TEFAF with some further information
http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2023/03/14/39844357.html
H. 21 cm (8.3 in.).
Hallmark of Augsburg 1590-1600;
Maker's Mark IDK. Courtesy at TEFAF
Maastrich 2023
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It is not known exactly how many were made or how many are extant but in 1910 E. Alfred Jones recorded ten tankards in total, including four then in the Russian Imperial Collection and one bequeathed (by Dr Butler) to Clare College, Cambridge in 1617.
The tankards originate from Augsburg or Ulm, apart from the unmarked ones, and they tend to be classified into two groups due to two variations of the design.
Examples are found in the following locations:
The Kremlin, Moscow; (I have been unable to locate photographs of these tankards as yet but I have discovered an electrotype copy of one).
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (inv. n°997.158.83) (see below).
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. (see below)
Clare College, Cambridge. (see below).
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich; The Schroder collection(1987, cat.20);
The Gilbert Collection. Victoria and Albert Museum (see above).
Schatzkammer des Deutschen Ordens, Vienna (see below).
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The text and images here adapted from the Sotheby's Catalogue entry see -
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4. The Royal Ontario Museum Tankard.
They say Possibly by Ulrich Schōnmacher (German, master 1552-d. 1585).
Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany.
Dimensions: 24.8 x 15.2 x 11.2 cm.
Object number: 997.158.83.
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5.Tankard in the Schatzkammer, Deutches Ordern Museum. Vienna.
I await further details.
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6. The Ashmolean Museum16th Century Silver Filigree and Silver Gilt Tankard.
The Ashmolean suggests Abraham Lotter (1562 - 1613).
20.5 cms tall.
Bequeathed by Michael Wellby in 2012.
Low resolution images courtesy the Ashmolean website.
https://images.ashmolean.org/search/?searchQuery=Tankard
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Photograph of a Tankard from an Unknown source.
this appears to be another photograph of the MAK version below.
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Image below from the MAK Vienna Photographic Archive.
Photographer: Wilhelm Gmeiner, Vienna, 1907.
Very obviously from the same series of tankards.
Where is this tankard now?
Photograph of a lidded jug made of glass with silver
filigree work (Dutch, 16th century the title according to the editor), a total of
271 photographs of objects from the exhibition of old gold and silversmith
works in the Imperial and Royal Austrian Empire. Museum, 1907.
Note the similarities with no 2. The Hermitage Tankard above.
https://sammlung.mak.at/sammlung_online?id=collect-194063
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Photograph of a 16th Century silver jug / tankard with filigree work.
from the
collection of Prince Czartoryski in Kraków (title assigned by the editor).
Photographer: Ignaz Krieger , Krakow / Kraków, before 1891.
(Untersatzkarton, rechts unten): Kanne, Silber in
Filigrantechnik verziert / XVI. Jahrh. Sammlg. Czartoryski in Krakau.
https://sammlung.mak.at/sammlung_online?id=collect-194038
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The Clare College "Poison" Tankard.
16th/17th Century.
Silver Gilt and Silver Filigree.
Clipping from the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the
Mediæval ...
South Kensington Museum, June 1862.
Image above from -
https://www.cuhags.cam/escutcheon/24.3.pdf
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The Schroder Collection Silver Gilt Silver Filigree and Rock Crystal Tankard.
with Glass Container within the filigree cage.
Almost certainly from the same workshop as the Clare College Poison Tankard.
Height 18.8 cms.
No marks suggested in the Catalogue as Ulm or Augsburg.
Provenance Baron Lionel de Rothschild, London, Baron Alfred de Rothschild, London
bought from J and S Goldschmidt 28 January 1925, (£1700).
Treasures from Faraway - Strawberry Hill Exhibition
Catalogue
Published on Apr 3, 2024
https://issuu.com/uniofbuckingham/docs/treasures_from_faraway_catalogue
The catalogue makes the point that the other type of Tankards with finials bear the marks of Hans Harder or Abraham Lotter I of Ulm (see Renaissance Silver 2007 page 180.)
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Table Top 16th Century Silver Gilt Filigree Pomander.
With New York dealer October 2023 available on Ist Dibs.
Ball shaped, separating into two halves, the central detachable band chased with a crown flanked by Hebrew blessing of spices on a zig-zag ground, between applied ropework bands, on a banded stem and domed foot embossed and chased with spiral Gothic lobes and foliage, cast openwork finial, painted inventory number 9486.
Height 10.8cms
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A slightly later 17th Century South German? Rock Crystal and Silver Gilt Filigree Tankard.
Burghley House, Lincolnshire.
9.8cm high.
The lid, handle and foot of this small tankard are applied
with elaborate silver-gilt filigree scrollwork.
The 1690 Devonshire Schedul, a large bequest from Elizabeth,
Countess of Devonshire to her daughter Anne, Countess of Exeter records under:
‘Christalls Garnisht and plaine’:… ‘A small Christall fflagon sett togeather
with silver philligrin guilt’.
They say English.
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Several Related Filigree Objects with a Gothic Twist.
Miniature Gothic Chest / Casket in the Green Vault (Grunes Gewolbe), Dresden.
This image very kindly supplied to me by Dirk Weber, Curator at the Grunes Gewolbe, Dresden.
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The Gold Filigree Casket, Lisbon.
To muddy the waters I illustrate here a Gold Filigree casket here from the collection of the Museu Nacional di Arte Antiga, Lisbon, Portugal.
They say Goa - but I have yet to be convinced.
Hugo Miguel Crespo of Lisbon University, who has written extensively on early Portuguese trade with the East suggests Hormuz - he states that there is no evidence of any filigree manufacture in Goa..
We need to find more filigree openwork objects such as this casket for comparison.
In 1505, King Manuel I of Portugal established a policy of expansion in Africa and Western Asia. During attempts to expand Portuguese influence into the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese duke Afonso de Albuquerque captured the island in 1507 and it was incorporated into the greater Portuguese Empire.
The Portuguese constructed a fortress on the island to deter potential invaders, naming it the Fort of Our Lady of the Conception. The island became an emergency stopover point for Portuguese ships traveling to Goa, Gujarat, and nearby Kishm.
The Ottomans laid siege to the island under the admiral and cartographer Piri Reis in 1552. In 1622, the island was captured from the Portuguese by a combined Anglo-Persian force at the behest of the English East India Company.
16th Century? Gold Filigree Casket.
The museum suggests Goa. Hugo Miguel Crespo suggests Hormuz, I think possibly Gujarat or at least the lock and hasp. but I am keeping an open mind.
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Another related silver filigree casket with Lisbon dealer George Cruz.
NB. Lock.plate and hasp in the form of a lizard much used on early caskets from Gujarat.
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I have posted on this and related caskets at -
https://antiqueeuropeanfiligree.blogspot.com/2023/02/silver-gilt-casket-in-national-museum.html
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Small Dutch? Netherlands Silver Gilt and Silver Filigree Casket (Knottekistje)
Catalogued as 17th Century.
Included here for comparison - The regular almost Gothic design of the filigree florettes appears similar to the workmanship on the tankards but there is also a similarity with the miniature Scandinavian filigree furniture by Johannes Muller.
This type of gilt foot appears on some 17th century Scandinavian and German filigree beakers.
Catalogued as Mid 17th Century.
The base engraved with fruit and foliage ornaments centered by a plaquette showing an elegant couple, inscribed Getrou tot Iin der dooet Anno 16.
Unfortunately Sothebys do not supply illustrations of the base base which might help to identify the source of this object.
It is apparently unmarked.
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Another Scandinavian 18th Century Silver Filigree Casket.
Perhaps made by Johannes Muller.
Illustration from Om Filigran. Alf Boe, pub. 1959.
Unfortunately for me most of this work is written in Norwegian - I need a translator!
The filigree work again appears almost Gothic but the applied putto suggest 17th/18th Century.
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16th Century German ? Silver Gilt Filigree Pommander.
Harvard University Collection.
Size -13 x 4.4 cm (5 1/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
inscription: IHS MARIA HILF UNS AUS NOT ON END.
https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/218097
Publication History -
Luisa Coscarelli-Larkin, Der lutherische Rosenkranz:
Konfessionelle und sinnliche Aspekte von Gebetszählegeräten in Porträts der
Frühen Neuzeit, Peter Lang (Bern, 2018), pp. 306-307, repr. p 307 as Abb.69
Exhibition History -
Objects for a Kunstkammer: Early European Collecting,
1550-1700, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 12/10/2005 -
11/19/2006
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For a slightly later 17th century German Silver Gilt Filigree Pomander in the shape of a pair see
https://www.anticstore.art/103617P
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