An unusual Dresden silver gilt beaker and cover

An unusual Dresden silver gilt beaker and cover

Tapering beaker with moulded rim on tripod skull supports. Engraved below the rim: "HEUTE AN MIR / MORGEN AN DIR" (to me today, to you tomorrow). Decorated with various inscriptions in oval shaped acanthus surrounds: "HEINRICH STROPEL / ANDREAS KÖNIG", "JOHANN CHRISTOPH PETRITZ / OTTO HARTWIG FRIECK", "GOTTFRIED MÜNCH / IOHANN LOSE" and between "MÖHLE / GOTTLOB CVNISIVS", "IOHANN GEORGE MILL HAD DIESEN BECHER ZUM GEDECHTNIS VERGÜLDEN LASEN d 10 Juny 1719". The domed lid with a further skull forming the finial and engraved with the names: "VALENTIN PAGE", "DANIEL HVTTMANN", "JOHANN CASPAR PESCHEL", "IOHAN HEINRICH GRVNEWALT" and "LVCAS BOHLE". H 15.5 cm, weight 309 g.
Marks of Johann Gottfried Bohrisch, 1718.

So far, only two of the Dresden citizens named in the engravings have been identified in the archives: The name Johann Lose appears in a donor inscription dated 1725 on the lid of the Dresden tanners' guild chest. Johann Christoph Petritz, cantor at Dresden's Annenkirche, died in 1721 at the age of 39 and was buried in the Annenkirchhof cemetery, which was later abandoned.

Provenance

Kunsthandel Fritz Payer, Zurich 1991; West German private collection.

Literature

Cf. a beaker with skull supports illus. in Walter Holzhausen, Prachtgefäße Geschmeide Kabinettstücke, Goldschmiedekunst in Dresden, Tübingen 1966, p. 65.