Treasures for a Wunderkammer

Dutch and German, 16th-17th centuries
Amber, coconut, porcelain and fire-gilt silver
Height 5 to 34 cm

The still-life features characteristic Kunstkammer objects of the Renaissance and Baroque period that are made of precious and exotic materials: a Chinese porcelain ewer of the transitional period with Dutch silver mount, ca 1650; a fire-gilt silver bottle with branch decoration made by Sebald Krumbholz in Leipzig in ca 1650; a Renaissance coconut cup with fire-gilt silver mount made in Nuremberg in ca 1540; a silver beaker in shape of a berkemeyer made for Philipp von Partenheim (1535-1603) in 1599; a pineapple cup by the Nuremberg goldsmith Hans I Claus, ca 1630; an amber box made in Kassel in ca 1700; and a pear-shaped cup by Hans II Weienmayr of Augsburg, ca 1620.