Jim Peake
Head of Department
Lot 5
A fine Silesian engraved beaker of 'Koula' type, Riesengebirge (Hirschberger Tal), late 17th century
19 November 2025, 10:30 GMT
London, Knightsbridge£800 - £1,200
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A fine Silesian engraved beaker of 'Koula' type, Riesengebirge (Hirschberger Tal), late 17th century
Perhaps by the 'Master of the Koula Beaker', in thick-walled glass and of tapering cylindrical shape, reserved with two large oval landscape panels, one depicting Christ and St John the Baptist seated together with a lamb, a tree in the foreground and an elaborate castle on a hill in the distance, the reverse with a tree-lined river scene, perhaps the Jordan River, three figures in a small rowing boat in the foreground and a large sailing boat in the distance, a building on a clifftop to the left, the panels flanked by formal flowering plants, 11.9cm high
Footnotes
The 'Master of the Koula Beaker' is a somewhat loose attribution for clearly a number of skilful engravers worked on these beakers and goblets from the end of the 17th century. Many of these are likely to have been engraved in Riesengebirge, at the Hirschberger Tal. A number of Bohemian and Silesian beakers have been linked on stylistic grounds to the celebrated 'Koula' beaker in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (inv. no.30.720/1849), decorated with representations of the Five Senses. A related beaker from the Christian von Reitzenstein Collection was sold by Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr on 29 October 2024, lot 90.