This is an important silver beaker of the late 17th to early 18th Century and really needs to be in a serious collectors cabinet or a museum cabinet.
Very interesting Dutch silver beaker, vodka tot or drinking cup. It is slightly out of shape as well as having some dents and knocks.
It is of simple form but has great hand decoration and in MY opinion later engraving.
It has done well to survive from being putting in the scrap heap over the years hasn't it !?
As you can see it has the wonderful 17th Century " snakeskin " or sometimes called " matted " hand punched dot pattern around the body with a small band plain right at the bottom and a slightly wider area at the top rim where there are no punch marks.
Can be known as Serpent Scale Cups or in Germany
" Schlangenhautbecher "
It has 3 oval plain cartouche's which have then been hand engraved with a single " flower ". In my opinion these have been added at a later time in its life. This type of re-working is not unusual on older silver items.
If you look carefully you can see within the 3 plain oval cartouche's the remains of the " snakeskin " makers tooling marks. Around the edges and at the bottom of one of the ovals you can see quite a bit of the snake skin marks.
The 3 flowers have been engraved by a skill full person too as they are not brash, they are fine even with a mound depicted too below each of them that they are planted in.
4 petals and 2 leaves with ground below.
On the base are the hallmarks ... I can clearly see Amsterdam ... the 3 Crosses below the Crown ... with an unidentified mark at both sides which is the same mark in each. These are D shaped hallmarks with what could be described as Horse Heads out of the 3 raised bumps that are visible.. but as we know we all SEE different things don't we.... they maybe initials or a device or something I honestly do NOT know.
It then has the Zig - Zag mark below which of course is the Assayers mark to check the purity of the silver.
I have just also noticed a small hallmark on the base very near the edge opposite one of the D shaped marks.. it is quite a bit smaller mark though and once again I do NOT know what the mark is.
It is out of shape with slight dents and knocks but it has NO splits or repairs.
It is a/f = as found.
The beaker is very near 2 inch tall x 1 and 1/2 inch base rim dia. x 1 and 3/4 inch top rim dia.
It weighs approx..... 29.4 grams.
With my digital callipers it is 48 mm tall x 36.3 mm base rim dia. x 44.1 mm top rim dia.
Remember it is slightly out of shape so it will vary slightly on these digital measures.
I am happy to keep this in my collection until the right person comes along to take it from me who has as much enthusiasm about it as I have. I would have though originally it would have been in an aristocratic family and not a cheap item in its day, well looked after and thought a lot about.
It has done so well to have survived this long through natural disasters, world wars, moving house, being passed from family to family through the generations, being re tooled at a later time, and then thrown about there after and not really looked after or thought about and finally ending up in a large box lot of misc. jewellery at a live auction where I bought it.
What a fabulous beaker.
If anyone wants any more close up photographs of the marks then I do have some so please ebay message me requesting some...They will not upload to the listing.
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Scale is usually an English 1 penny coin which is 20mm in diameter which is just short of 7/8ths of an inch in diameter.
MY TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
If you see A/F = a/f in the title or description it means "as found" condition which may have scuffs, scratches and damage.
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