A Very Fine German Silver Parcel Gilt Tankard from Koenigsberg

Object Number: #107

Marks: Königsberg ca. 1689/90 (Lit W.Scheffler No 56)
Maker: Peter Andreas Händel
(Lit: W. Scheffler No. 249 and Czihak page 49

Height: 12 cm (4,7 in.); Weight: 445 gr.

Pictures

Detailed Information

Above the moulded base with small beading, the plain body of the vessel arises with a protruding engraved illustration of the twelve Apostles.On the forward facing front of the vessel is a large engraving of the family coat of arms, a double scroll thumbpiece and a scroll-decorated escutcheon on the cast ear-shaped handle with the inscription of the owner/commanding customer: “Anna Suren Sandin 1693”.

This type of tankard is essentialy a copy of the so-called Creussener Steinzeug stoneware produced in the city of Creussen, near Bayreuth, since the sixteenth century. Creussen stoneware tankards with metal mountings, alongwith the decoration of the twelve Apostels, were quite popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth century (see an example in the Victoria & Albert Museum). This tankard made in silver is evidently, a overly  luxurious variety of this from of drinking vessels and coat of arms engraved, with the upmost detail ,as well as the name of the owner, shows that is it about a very significant object, and could have been a gift for a marriage.

Maker: Peter Andreas Händel was born in 1638, and became a master in 1671. He died in 1704. Works of Peter Andreas Händel from the collection of Graf Dönhoff Friedrichstein are located at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. A beaker of Händel with a dioramic relief illustration of the twelve Apostles is located in the former – Tragheimer Church – at Königsberg.

Provenance: German Private Collection