A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-1
A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-2
A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-3
A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-4
A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-5
A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-6
A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-1A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-2A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-3A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-4A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-5A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard - image-6

Lot 1000 Dα

A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard

Auction 1230 - overview Cologne
17.11.2023, 10:00 - Decorative Arts - Silver, Porcelain, Faience
Estimate: 70.000 € - 80.000 €

A museum-quality Augsburg silver gilt tankard

Slightly tapering vessel on three feet with lions' heads, engraved to the body with strapwork and fruit garlands surrounding three round medallions with repoussé depictions of the goddesses Venus, Diana and Pallas Athena after engravings by Virgil Solis (Nuremberg 1514 - 1562). The curved handle decorated with figures of Roman soldiers. The domed, hinged lid with corresponding decor, baluster-form finial and thumb rest formed as a mermaid and a lion mascaron. Later engraved underneath with a coat of arms and dedication "M.EBERHARD LIEBELER / VEREHRED:D.K.Z.S.AN.", dated 1642. H 20 cm, weight 730 g.
Fragmentary maker's mark of Hans Reiser, around 1560.

Provenance

In 1642, the tankard was donated as a communion jug to the Evangelical Lutheran parish church of St Anne in Dresden by Eberhard Liebeler, born around 1600 in Dresden, pastor at St Anne's from 1637 to 1650. It was apparently sold after 1860 and before 1900, possibly to help finance building work.

Literature

Cf. a tankard by Reiser sold by Christie's Geneva in Important Silver, 9th November 1976, lot 252, illus. p. 56.