An important Renaissance silver gilt tankard
Protruding base decorated with repoussé fruit garlands surrounding sea monster motifs in small oval reserves. The cylindrical body adorned with scrollwork reliefs, birds and fruit garlands around oval medallions depicting female figures as allegories of the months of July (a nude seen from behind holding a sheaf of wheat), August (a lady beside an apple tree), and September (a young woman with vines in her hair holding a jug and wine glass). C-shaped handle with shield terminal and bifurcated thumb rest. The domed hinged lid decorated with small landscapes, the finial formed as a figure of St. George with the dragon. H 25.8 cm, weight 810 g.
Marks of Paul Hübner, 1614 - 1616.
Paul Hübner was one of the most important Augsburg goldsmiths of his time. He is best known for his series of stembowls with finely worked repoussé figures, 54 of which were formerly housed in the treasury of the Archbishopricof Salzburg, and are now in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence; eleven more are in the British Museum, London (Waddesdon Bequest no. 97).
The Mannerist female figures used for these allegories of the months can also be found in several of the stembowls with allegories of the four elements.
This ewer presumably also originally belonged to a set of four with allegories of all twelve months.
Certificate
Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ludwig Richter, Freudental, 28th Sept., 2018
Literature
For the stembowls in the Bristish Museum cf. Seling 1980, vol. II, illus. 212 ff. For those in the Palazzo Pitti cf. ibid., illus. 199 ff. and 206 ff. Cf. also a drinking vessel by Hübner from around 1590 illus. in cat. Sammlung August Neresheimer, Hamburg 1974, no. 57.