maker's mark OK conjoined Slovakian parcel-gilt silver beaker

engraved with armorials, initialled MH and dated 1616 between strapwork and peapod ornament

Exh. Cat. Couven-Museum Aachen, 2003, no. 13

A comparable beaker dated 1618  with identical maker and town marks, is in the Kunstgewerbe Museum Cologne inv. nr. G.4 88.220. It was originally considered to be a Frankfurt made piece on the basis of the eagle town mark which is not dissimilar from those  of Rimavská Sobota. In 1928 Marc Rosenberg illustrated the marks (vol. 4 nos. 9510 and 9511) taken from the Cologne museum beaker,  but did not ascribe them to any town or maker. In 2000 Dr Heller in conjuction with the Kunstgewerbe Museum Cologne identified the town mark  as that of Rimavská Sobota (Groß-Steffelsdorf), in modern day Slovakia and published the result, see: István Heller, Ungarische und Siebenbürgische Goldschmiedemarken. Vom Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 2000.