TUMBLER
Creator(s): Unknown (Silversmith)
Currently in storage
About this object
The niello technique was practiced almost exclusively in Russia in the late seventeenth century and has therefore been identified with that nation. The decoration on this tumbler suggests that foreign trade had an influence on Russian design. Each of the four cartouches decorating the upper part of this tall cup features a female figure with mixed allegorical attributes. The naïve baroque frames with masks at the bottom encircling the figures are shaded to resemble crosshatching, in imitation of engraved prints. It has been argued that many of the motifs on this cup came to Moscow from Ukraine in the form of engravings and book illustrations.
Four cartouches decorate the upper part of this tall cup. Each cartouche features a female figure with mixed allegorical attributes. The naive baroque frames with masks at the bottom encircling the figures are shaded to resemble crosshatching, thus revealing the influence of engraving. Poppies, sunflowers, and tulips on single stem ring the lower half of the cup. Unicorns and stags romp beneath the flowers, and a bird eats berries from a plant. The dark background is created by a tiny, circular leaf-and-vine pattern in niello, which is also used to delineate and shade the figures, flowers, and animals. Interior is gilded.
- Object name:
- TUMBLER
- Made from:
- Silver gilt -- niello
- Made in:
- Moscow, Russia
- Date made:
- late 17th-early 18th Century
- Size:
- 21.6 × 13.3 cm (8 1/2 × 5 1/4 in.)
Detailed information for this item
- Catalog number:
- 13.8
- Class:
- NIELLO
- Signature marks:
- INSCRIPTION 148 2/4 scratched in large numbers
- Credit line:
- Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973