Lot 980 Dα

Slightly tapering hexagonal tankard on a rounded base embossed with scrolls and cherub's heads, the finely chased cast silver handle with a female herm. Each of the six faces engraved with flowering carnation tendrils. The two faces flanking the handle decorated with floral designs, the two subsequent faces inset with 16th century Erzgebirge medallions depicting the prophet Elias. The two front faces engraved with the armorials of Michael Hackert zu Hart (before 1559 - 1602) and Sophia Hackher, née Gamp (circa 1560 - 1602), and monogrammed M.H.Z.H. and S.H.G.G. The base of the spout inset with a 16th century South German medallion depicting a Eucharistic well and inscribed "KVMPT HER ZU MIR ALLE DIE IR MVESELIG SEIT ICH WILL EVCH ERQVICKEN"; the domed lid with the lion of St. Mark forming the thumbrest and centrally inset with a Habsburg guldiner coin bearing a portrait of Duke Siegmund of Tirol, called Siegmund the rich, dated 1486.

The medallions from the Erzgebirge.
Revers: Portrait of the Prophet Elias in a Phrygian cap, avers: The assumption of Elias in a chariot of fire. Wolf Milicz, Joachimsthal, circa 1539 - 45.

Michael Hackher zu Hart is listed in Austrian tax records as the owner of Harthoff manor south of St. Pölten. Franz Karl Wissgrill writes in his work "Schauplatz des landsässigen Niederösterreichischen Adels", published in Vienna in 1795, “This Michael Hackher zu Hart was married to Sophia Gamp and lived almost continuously in his manor in Harthof, where he and his wife both died in 1602 and which was left to his sons Wolf Bernhard and Jacob Christoph”. The couple's great grandchildren were raised to nobility by Maria Theresia in 1773, and one great-great grandson even received the title of baron in 1812.