A Renaissance silver gilt pear cup and cover for the Imhoff family
Round, waisted foot engraved with scrollwork and fruit, the chased shaft formed as a tree entwined by a snake and with models of a squirrel and a buzzard perched on its trunks. The cup formed as a pear decorated with scrolls and strapwork interspersed with fruit garlands. The lid with conforming decor and crowned by a figure of a so-called "sealion", the heraldic charge of the Imhoff family. H 26.3 cm, weight 337 g.
Nuremberg, marks of Hans Winckler, 1592 - 94.
The Imhoff (or Imhof) family was one of the oldest patrician families in the imperial city of Nuremberg. They were already documented in Lauingen in the mid-13th century. The Nuremberg branch of the family were represented in the city's "inner council" almost continuously from 1402 until Nuremberg was removed of its status as an imperial city in 1806. They were also imperial knights.
The first owner of this cup is thought to have been the merchant Andreas Imhoff III (1562-1637), who was "Vorderster Losunger" (treasurer) and "Reichsschultheiß" (head official) of the imperial city and was also one of the founders of the "Banco Publico". The Germanisches Nationalmuseum houses a goblet from his estate with the same finial and a further example is housed in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection.
Literature
For the goblet by Andreas III Imhoff in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum cf. cat. GNM 2007, illus. 416. The goblet in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in: Müller, European Silver, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, London 1986, p. 194 ff.