Two double standing cups (trussing cups)

Simon Pissinger

ca. 1600 · Gilded silver · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Double cups like this one, which detach at the center to be used as separate goblets, were employed to celebrate both political and matrimonial unions. These cups were part of a silver cache discovered in 1869 in the false wall of a Regensburg home, where they had been hidden in the 1630s to protect them from looting during the Thirty Years’ War, one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. Starting in 1618, the intermittent warfare involved all major powers fighting for religious, dynastic, and commercial causes, transforming Central Europe into ruinous battlefields until 1648.

Artist

Simon Pissinger

Date

ca. 1600

Medium

Gilded silver

Culture

German, Regensburg

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1911