Strasbourg: a Major Center of Goldsmithing
This cup is an exceptional example of the goldsmithing craft from the city of Strasbourg, which in 1670 was still a free imperial city, only becoming French with the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697.
It is adorned with three scenes depicting goldsmiths at work, suggesting it was either a masterpiece cup or a guild cup of the goldsmiths’ corporation. However, the presence of hallmarks on our cup perhaps rules out the possibility of it being a masterpiece cup, as the goldsmith would not yet have had an assigned maker’s mark at that stage.
Two other masterpiece cups are still preserved today in public collections:

One, signed and dated Johann Friedrich Baer 1746, is held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, sold at Christie’s London in June 2003. The goldsmith depicted various scenes but primarily showcased different techniques to be admitted as a master goldsmith.

The second, by Johann Jacob Bury in 1732, is preserved in the goldsmithing collections of the Strasbourg Museum (inv. MAD LXV 104 a.b). Here too, the goldsmith demonstrates all his technical knowledge.
Our cup is thus very likely a guild cup, depicting significant moments in the working life of a goldsmith and the corporation.
The first scene shows several figures wearing typical period clothing, notably wide-brimmed hats. Several workers are busy in the workshop: a young man engraves a plate, another operates a bellows, and a third clamps a plate in a vise. This scene is a normal day in a goldsmith’s workshop.
The second scene illustrates a tavern or stub, its Strasbourgeois name. Three men are seated, weighing objects using a balance. Several items are placed on the table. This scene represents a recurring activity of the guild, one of whose tasks was to verify the silver’s fineness, as well as weights and melting points, to prevent fraud.
The third scene also takes place in a large room. One journeyman works on a piece, while another arranges objects on a table, a third picks up a plate, and a servant carries an object on his head. A man observes the scene, dressed more richly than the others—perhaps the workshop’s master goldsmith or a wealthy client come to admire the pieces? Between the scenes are repoussé depictions of three heads representing the stages of life (child, adult, elder), each accompanied by an animal: a turkey, an eagle clutching a thunderbolt, and a pelican feeding its young, symbolizing allegories such as selflessness or Christian sacrifice for the pelican. The cup is topped with a lid, whose finial depicts a goldsmith in rich clothing, holding keys and a hammer, symbols of his profession, likely the juré-garde or Oberherr of the corporation, representing the authority of the goldsmiths’ guild or Tribu de l’Échasse.
Jacob Santra was admitted as a master in 1663, and a few pieces are attributed to him, such as an ivory and silver-gilt tankard from around 1670, sold at Christie’s Paris, C’est fou, 14 December 2018, lot 24, and a silver-gilt goblet with snakeskin decoration, sold at Sotheby’s Paris, 19 April 2006, lot 16. None of these pieces can showcase Santra’s skill as vividly as our guild cup, which brings together all the techniques used by the goldsmith. It is clear that Santra held a very special place in the goldsmith community, as only one of their finest representatives could have been commissioned to create a cup intended for the life of the community.
This piece is thus a precious testament to the life of guilds, which in France were abolished during the Revolution with the Chaptal Law in 1797, and whose treasures were often melted down. Our cup is a central element of the goldsmiths’ guild, meant to be displayed during ceremonies, preserved over time by the jurés-gardes, and illustrating their daily life. Baron and Baroness de Giey thus wished to include in their collection a significant piece from the goldsmiths’ community, in line with their collections of guild cups from the 16th and 17th centuries.