A silver mounted and engraved ruby glass goblet - Lot 50

A silver mounted and engraved ruby glass goblet A silver mounted and engraved ruby glass goblet Glass: Nuremberg, circa 1685-90, probably engraved by Heinrich Schwanhardt Mounting (unmarked): South Germany, circa 1700 H. 9.8 cm Wt 261 g. Provenance: Sotheby's, London, June 2, 1969, lot 35 ; Private collection, Germany; Private collection, France. Exhibition: Ein rheinischer Silberschatz - Schmuck und Gerät aus Privatbesitz. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Cologne, 1980, no. 408. Bibliography : B. Klesse et al, Ein rheinischer Silberschatz - Schmuck und Gerät aus Privatbesitz. Exhibition catalog: Kunstgewerbemuseum, Cologne, 1980, pp. 282, no. 408, ill. D. von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, Rubinglas des ausgehenden 17. und des 18. Jahrhunderts, Mainz, 2001, p.194, no. 156. The cylindrical beaker is engraved with a winged love in the middle of the water. He is seated on his quiver, which serves as a boat, and uses his bow as an oar. He is holding a thin veil around him. In the background, a three-masted vessel on the left and a smaller boat on the right are sailing on the water. The scene is framed by palm fronds. The other side bears the inscription "Amour trouve moyen" (Love finds a way), decorated with calligraphic loops that join in the center to form the stem of a clover cut deeper into the glass. The latter is decorated with a crown and star and fleur-de-lys motifs that are not in the same hand as the rest of the decoration. The mounting consists of a silver border, engraved with alternating motifs of lambrequins and fleurons, surmounting a narrow frieze of three-lobed wolf's teeth. Condition: good, the goblet has three notches under its base, probably the mark of three missing ruby glass feet (?). The decoration on this goblet is inspired by an engraving of an emblem. It can be compared with the one published by Otto van Veen in 1608 in Antwerp in his Amorum emblemata (pp. 92-93). The composition, entitled "Via nulla est invia amore", is captioned by a poem translated into several languages, including French: Amour trouve moyen. Voycy le Dieu d'Amour, qui hardy passer ose The waves of the sea; floating on his quiver, d'une rame luy sert son petit arc Turquois. l'Amant pour yoir sa Dame entreprend toute chose. For other goblets of the same type, decorated with love emblems and preserved in museums such as the Hermitage in St. Petersburg or the Schatzkammer of the Residenz in Munich, see von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, pages 192-193, and in particular n°151, very similar to ours, preserved in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.