A Nuremberg silver nesting goblet
Silver; gold-plated. Silver-gilt goblet formed from two identical goblets stacked on top of each other. Gadrooned bases supporting short baluster-form shafts with scroll appliques, tapering cuppas gadrooned to resemble bunches of grapes and engraved with laurel foliage beneath the rims. The lower goblet engraved with a dedication below the rim: "Dises geschörlein verehert Hans Horn Melber, Einem Ersamen Müllerhandwerck, Se(i)ner darbeij am bösten zu gedencken. Ao.1662.". Engraved with weights to the undersides “12 LOT 3/16” and “12 LOT 1q 3/16”. Brands: BZ Nuremberg, MZ Caspar II Beutmüller (1612 - 32, GNM No. 61), tremolier stitches. H 30.3 cm, weight 359 g.
Marks of Caspar II Beuthmüller, 1612 – 32.
The word “melber” found in the dedication is an old Bavarian and Austrian term for a flour merchant. This goblet appears to have been given by flour merchant as a donation to the local miller's guild.
Literature
Beutmüller's works feature numerous novelty drinking vessels and gadrooned goblets of various kinds. Examples of his pieces can today be found in the Kremlin in Moscow and in the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm. Cf. also a gadrooned goblet by Beutmüller in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York illus. in cat.: GNM 2007, no. 427.