An important parcel gilt Strasbourg Renaissance silver beaker
Interior gilt. Issuing from a domed foot the cylindrical shaft engraved with a hunting scene, the conically tapered cuppa resting on a cast band with a fruit garland in relief. The cuppa decorated with a finely engraved scene of the triumph of Bacchus after a painting by Maerten van Heemskerck from around 1536/37. The lip bearing engraved panels with allegories of the months January to June with signs of the zodiac, numbered 1 – 6, between Corinthian columns. H 21.5 cm, weight 461 g.
Marks of Dietrich Brey, 1560 - 88.
Dietrich Brey (also Théodore de Bry or Thierry de Bry), was one of the most important goldsmiths in Strasbourg in the late 16th century and is also documented as an well-known designer of patterns for ornaments and designs for works in precious metals. He was born in Liège in 1528 and settled in Strasbourg in 1560, where he worked until 1588. The large bacchanalia depiction on this beaker follows one of Brey's own engraved designs, today kept in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inv. no. RP-P-BI-5247), in which he reduced the figures present in the original painting.
Following a short stay in London, Brey moved to Frankfurt am Main, where he worked as a bookseller and publisher until his death in 1598 (cf. Scheffler Hessen no. 66 b). Two of the travel compilations which he published concerning Columbus' discovery of the new world and journeys in Eastern India were among the most influential works of their kind in the early modern era.
Provenance
From an old private collection.
Literature
For this maker cf.: Helft, Le Poinçon des Provinces Françaises, Paris 1968, no. 1069. Kugel/Bastian mention Brey as an engraver and designer of various patterns for engraved ornaments and goldsmith's works, cf. cat.: Vermeilleux, Paris 2014, under MZ no. 21. An illus. of a guild platter on ibid. p. 26. Cf. also: Zülch, Frankfurter Künstler 1223 - 1700, Frankfurt 1935, p. 365 ff. Also: Braun-Ronsdorf, Theodor de Bry, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 2, Berlin 1955, p. 693; Keazor, Theodore De Bry's Images for America, in: Print Quarterly, XV, no. 2, London 1988, p. 131 ff.