Magnificent rock-crystal tankard owned by the Passau Humanist Leonhard Baminger (1495-1567)

Freiburg im Breisgau, ca 1565
Mount: probably Strasbourg, ca 1565
Rock crystal origin: Swiss Alps; mount: fire-gilt copper
On the inside of the lid, the engraved coat of arms and the monogram ‘A.B.B.’
Height 22 cm, lower diameter 8.5 cm

Exhibited at: Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, “Weltenharmonie. Die Kunstkammer und die Ordnung des Wissens”, 20 June - 22 October 2000

Published in: Laue, G.: Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer, Munich 2017, pp. 136-137, pp. 223-224, Cat. No. 33; Weltenharmonie. Die Kunstkammer und die Ordnung des Wissens, exhibition at the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig 2000, p. 229, Cat. No. 258; Laue, G.: Wunder kann man sammeln. Munich 1999, p. 103

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The combination of transparent rock crystal and a richly decorated fire-gilt copper mount make this lidded tankard look magnificent. A coat of arms with a tree flanked by two stars and the monogram ‘A.B.B.’ are engraved on the inside of the lid. Both refer to the first owner of the tankard: the composer und writer Leonhard Baminger (1495-1567) from Passau, who was in contact with the most influential humanists of his time, among them Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Philipp Melanchton (1497-1560), and who probably commissioned the rock-crystal tankard to commemorate the subsequent death of his first and second wife Agnes (†1557) and Barbara Baminger (†1564). Like so many rock-crystal vessels from Freiburg im Breisgau, this tankard is highly likely to have been mounted in Strasbourg. Noteworthy in this connection are a rock-crystal tankard in the Gilbert Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a rock-crystal ewer in the Württembergisches Landesmuseum and its companion piece in Sklokloster Castle in Sweden, all of them cut in Freiburg in the late sixteenth century and then mounted by the master goldsmith Diebold Krug in Strasbourg. The fire-gilt silver mounts of those vessels compare with the mount of the present tankard, which, although worked of copper, is nonetheless unequivocally a match in respect of both motifs and style.