Unmarked parcel-gilt silver wine cup

of shell form, with liquid flutes and scrolling fleshly rim on two bun supports, the underside engraved with armorial and initial

Exh. Cat. Couven-Museum Aachen, 2003, no. 17
Dr. István Heller and  Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schneider, article published in conjunction with TEFAF Maastricht 2003, pp. 16-21, Masterpieces of European Goldsmiths’ works 1560-1860, Couven Museum, Aachen, 2003, no. 3

Feet very slightly pushed into body above. Seam joins middle at rim which is applied in sections and also visible at central handle. Some very light corrosion to metal and patches of gilding loss. A few hairline cracks and overall wear. Generally pretty good condition – very nice.
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The initial F and armorial bearing on the underside of the cup is that of Ferenc Bethlen- Bethlen (1601-1653), advisor and High Steward (Erchtrucheß) to his kinsman Gabor Bethlen, King of Hungary (1580-1621). As a senior advisor to this Transylvanian prince whose wife Catherine was the daughter of the elector of Brandenburg and whose brother-in-law Gustavus Adolphus was King of Sweden,  Ference Bethlen Bethlen  moved in courtly circles and would undoubtedly have had access to court goldsmiths.  He may have been in Prague when his master Gabor Bethlen, allied with Frederick V, Elector Palatine and the Bohemian protestants against the Emperor Ferdinand II and negotiations were held there in 1620. The cup is clearly influenced by the most up to date court styles prevalent at the time; that of Prague, epitomised by the work produced by the Miseroni stone carvers earlier in the century and also the sinuous forms of Dutch goldsmiths such as the van Vianen family who worked in Prague and at the court of Charles I in London.

 My shell-cup by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schneider 

Resting on three knobs the gilt silver shell opens its shallow volume to our eyes. Concave and covex bows break the light and give the vessel a transcendent glance. Its hem turns to four volutes that make the cup seem growing. Like a big wave the thumbrest turns up and slides down to sensitive slope, that covers a misterious cave. Take it to your hand and feel the weight, the sureness of the space provided for your thumb, feeling the pointed ornament there. Turn it round and see the silver hardness that protects the inner beauty.

 

No hallmark, not master's sign, just an ornamental initial F, accompanied by a crowned snake, with a crossring in its mouth. So we may name the former owner, Ferenc of the noble Transsylvanian family of Bethlen-Bethlen. In 1625 he became Truchses, so mayordomus, of the ruling Prince of Transylvania, Gábor Bethlen. That enormous personality, consequently calvinistic, was one of the Hungarian antagonists of the most catholic Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II. during the Thirty Years War. Ferenc remained in this Calvinistic circle of power, also under the successor György I. Rákoszí, one of the light-heroes of Hungarian history.

 

Our shell-cup breathes the air of a humanistic Kunst- und Wunderkammer. There, the most important rulers tried to unite the encyclopedical knowledge about men and nature. A collection of conchilie, so shells, was a must in these micro-macro cosmoses. Emperor Rudolf II. (1552–1612) had transformed Prague’s Hradčany Castle to the greatest Grotta, to his idea of world. Where no miracles were to be found any more, he made them to be made by alchemists, astrologists, sculptors and painters, and so did his followers on the throne. Nature, more beautiful than nature was made for the Prague Court by Ottavio (1567-1624) and Dionysio (1607-1661) Miseroni out of precious stones, shell-cups of rock-cristals and smaragds. And our silver-gilt vessel follows the Miseroni ideas. Ottavio was portrayed with his family by Karel Škréta (1610-1674) in 1653 (Prague, National Gallery). On this painting you can see in the hands of the smallest boys, who might have smashed the valuable rock-cristal objects, golden shell-cups, like ours.

 Take the shell-cup, filled with red wine from the Colli Euganei in the light of flickering candles, feel it in your right hand, see the red-golden glances, smell the heavy earth and drink the nectar and ambrosia of Greek gods. Some thirty-five years ago „l'anglista“ Mario Praz during a dinner in his apartment above the Roman Museo Napoleonico handed over to me a silver salt cellar, which felt as pleasant in my hand as Dr Heller's shell-cup. I looked it at from below more carefully: It was a copy of the right breast of Canova's Paolina Borghese.

Ulrich Schneider