Beaker

Jean-Jacques Kirstein

ca. 1770 · Silver-gilt · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This silver-gilt beaker may have been a component of a dressing table set but equally could have been part of a set of cutlery and other dining implements to be used when the owner was traveling or hunting. Beakers of this type were a specialty of Strasbourg goldsmiths, the form having been developed there under German influence in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. Made by Jean-Jacques Kirstein, one of the city’s leading silversmiths whose work was commissioned by noble and royal families throughout Europe, the floral motifs and curving feathers as well as the delicate waves on the foot, all point to the Rococo style. The city was particularly renowned for its unparalleled gilding. This beaker may originally had a cover, not uncommon for beakers made in Strasbourg.

Artist

Jean-Jacques Kirstein

Date

ca. 1770

Medium

Silver-gilt

Culture

French, Strasbourg

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2008