Tankard: C.2070-1928

Maker(s)

Production: Unidentified Creussen Pottery

Entities

• Tankard
• Bienenkorbhumpen

Categories

• Stoneware
• Salt-glazed stoneware
• German stoneware

Description

Brown salt-glazed stoneware tankard decorated with three applied moulded medallions enclosing respectively a coat-of-arms, and busts of a man and a woman with Renaissance style ornamental frames, inscribed below, 'MATTHAEVS HASFVRDER IN CVLMBACH'

Brown stoneware with dark-brown wash on the exterior, applied moulded relief decoration, and salt-glaze. The tankard is of Bienenkorb form, with slightly convex sides, a spreading base, and a loop handle, to which is attached a hinged pewter cover with a ball thumbpiece. There are pewter cordons inlaid below the rim at the top, and on both sides of the spreading base. Applied round the sides are a central circular medallion enclosing the arms of Hasfurder: a leaping hare with above, a helm, hare crest and mantling, flanked by busts of a woman (L) and a man (R) in contemporary costume. The busts and arms are surrounded by rectangular frames of putti, strapwork, scrolls and drapery, and are separated by caryatids inset with lion masks. On the spreading lower area is the inscription 'MATTHAEVS HASFVRDER IN CVLMBACH' (AE joined). The back of the handle has at the top, an applied grotesque mask, and acanthus foliage extending to its junction with the body.

Notes

History note: H.J. Fielding (1834-1921); Puttick and Simpson, London, 27 January, 1922, 'Pottery and Porcelain, the property of the late Henry Johnes Fielding Esq. (Grandson of Henry Fielding) of 17 Hereford Square, S.W.', one of five items in lot 72; purchased for £2 12s. 6d. by Mack on behalf of Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest

Place(s) associated

• Creussen ⪼ Bavaria ⪼ German

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

17th Century, Early#
Production date: circa AD 1620

Note

A pottery industry existed in Creussen (or Kreussen) in the sixteenth century but stoneware production did not begin until the early seventeenth century. Dated examples begin in the second decade of the century, and the first recorded historical reference to potting there was in Matthaeus Merrian's Topogaphia Franconiae, published in 1548. The Bienenkorb (beehive) form of tankard was one of the characteristic vessel shapes made at Creussen. Tankards decorated with some reliefs comparable to this one have been recorded with the date 1621. A tankard with the same inscription, and arms, but different female head, is in the British Museum (inv. no. 1887,0211.16).

Culmbach, now Kulmbach, is the capital of the Kulmbach area of Bavaria

School or Style

Renaissance