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A remarkably early and important German waldglas 'unbreakable beaker', dated 1644 image 1

A remarkably early and important German waldglas 'unbreakable beaker', dated 1644 image 2

A remarkably early and important German waldglas 'unbreakable beaker', dated 1644 image 3

A remarkably early and important German waldglas 'unbreakable beaker', dated 1644 image 4

A Private Belgian Collection

Lot 21^*

A remarkably early and important German waldglas 'unbreakable beaker', dated 1644

27 November 2024, 10:30 GMT

London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £40,960 inc. premium

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A remarkably early and important German waldglas 'unbreakable beaker', dated 1644

Of emerald-green tint, the thick walled and slightly tapering cylindrical form with an applied footring, inscribed 'Trinck mich auss unnd wirff mich Nider/ Heb mich auff und vill mich Wider/ Anno 1644' (Drink me dry and throw me down. Pick me up and fill me again. Year 1644) in diamond-point script, between formal borders, an elaborate floral scrollwork flourish to the reverse,
13cm high

Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, Belgium

This previously unrecorded and highly significant beaker belongs to a distinctive and narrow group of so-called Unzerbrechlichgläser (unbreakable glasses) or Dickwandbechern (thick-walled beakers), all of which are inscribed with variations of the same verse. Their thick feet and walls would have provided some protection from breakage during raucous toasting. Most are dated to the late 1650s and early 1660s, making the present lot a remarkably early example. Two such beakers exist which are dated 1643, just a year earlier, and these represent the earliest dates examples of this type of beaker by a full decade. One is in the Getty Museum (inv. no.84.DK.529), illustrated by illustrated and discussed by Catherine Hess and Timothy Husband, European Glass in the J. Paul Getty Museum (1997), pp.62-5, no.13. The other is in Heeswijk Castle, Brabant, see F G A M Smit, A Concise Catalogue of European Line-engraved Glassware 1570-1900 (1994), p.33, no.79.1. An example dated 1653, formerly in the Biemann Collection sold by Sotheby's on 16 June 1984, lot 12, is the next earliest date found on such a beaker. The present beaker is remarkable not only for its early date, but also the absence of applied raspberry prunts which often characterise this group of glasses.

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