An important Nuremberg Renaissance silver gilt tankard
Slightly conical body on a gently moulded basal ring; decorated with finely chased Mannerist figures, scrolls, mascarons, and three round reserves with figures representing Caritas, Fides, and Patientia from Peter Flötner's series of the seven virtues, and a fourth medallion depicting Fortitudo from the same series to the summit of the slightly domed lid. The figural thumb rest formed as a putto sitting on a wine barrel, the opulent scroll-form cast handle with fine relief decor surrounding a female herm. H 14 cm, weight 629 g.
Marks of Jobst Heberlein, ca. 1575 - 80.
Provenance
Private collection, Lower Saxony.
Literature
A similar tankard by Heberlein, formerly in the Alfred Pringsheim Collection, illustrated in Seelig, Die Silbersammlung Alfred Pringsheim, Riggisberg 2013, no.10. Cf. also Heberlein's lantern shaped tankard in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Inv. no. HG 8781), illus. in cat.: Wenzel Jamnitzer und die Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1500 - 1700, Nuremberg 1985, no. 56. A novelty beaker in the Armoury of the Kremlin in Moscow, illus. in cat.: GNM 2007, no. 173. For the series of the virtues after Peter Flötner cf. Weber, Deutsche, Niederländische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten 1500 - 1650, Munich 1975, No. 64.1, 3, 4 and 5.