Small rock-crystal goblet
Freiburg im Breisgau, ca 1550
Mount: Hans Newmeister (Master of the Halfmoon)
Rock crystal origin: Swiss Alps; mount: silver cast, embossed, engraved and fire-gilt; Freiburg city mark (R2109), maker’s mark with halfmoon (R2123)
Height 12 cm, upper diameter 7 cm
Provenance: Germany, private collection
Published in: Laue, G.: Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer, Munich 2017, pp. 176, pp. 246-247, Cat. No. 54
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This little rock-crystal goblet is one of only a handful of rock-crystal vessels shown to have been cut and mounted in Freiburg im Breisgau in the sixteenth century. The lip of the cup bears not only the Freiburg assay groove but also a master maker’s mark with a halfmoon, which Marc Rosenberg has traced to the Freiburg goldsmith Hans Newmeister. The only other rock-crystal cup with a mount by this master is in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich and came from the Wittelsbach treasury. The small cup discussed here was originally part of a double cup, like a comparable vessel displayed at the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Kassel. This last piece came from the landgraviate art collections and was kept in the silver vault, i.e. the treasury of the landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, on into the eighteenth century.