A Siegburg stoneware pewter-mounted tankard (Schnelle), dated 1595

Moulded on three sides with rectangular armorial panels, the centre one with the arms of the Hamburg Englandfahrer Company underneath the date 1595 and above the inscription DER.ENGELAND/ES.FARER.GES/ELSCHOP.IN/HAMBORCH ('The Englandfahrer Company in Hamburg'), flanked on each side by a depiction of a woman inscribed 'ESTER' surrounded by foliate scrollwork, mounted with a pewter cover, 22cm high

Provenance:
Private European Collection

A very similar tankard with the same central panel and date is in the British Museum (illustrated in D. Gaimster, German Stoneware 1200-1900 (1997), p. 183, no.23), and another in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Cologne (see G. Reineking von Bock, Steinzeug (1986), no.221).

The Englandfahrer Company was a Hanseatic merchant company in Hamburg which traded exclusively with London, see Gaimster (1997), p. 184. The March 1596 account records of the company show payments awarded to Dietrich Dulmann to supply them with various Siegburg stonewares, including ones moulded with the company's arms.