beaker

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Object Type
Museum number: 1876,1104.3
Title: Object: Aldrevandin Beaker; Object: Aldrevandini Glass
Description: Glass beaker; enamelled with three shields; between them, highly coloured flowers in red, green, yellow, blue and white; inscribed with maker's name around the top.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 1330 (circa)
Production place: Made in: Venice (city)
Materials: glass; enamel
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 125 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: As pointed out by Krueger 2002, the beaker first came to public attention when it was exhibited in Munich in 1876 (Kunst- und Kunstindustrie-Ausstellung alter und neuer deutscher Meister sowie der deutschen Kunstschulen im Glaspalaste zu Munchen, v. 2, no. 1743) when in the possession of the artist and collector Lorenz Gedon (1844-1883) [see Brigitte Gedon, 'Lorenz Gedon: Die Kunst des Schonen', Munich, Nymphenburger, 1994].The arms are described in the Munich catalogue. Less than three weeks after the exhibition closed, the beaker was purchased for the BM through A.W. Franks. Formerly attributed to a Syro-Frankish workshop from the early 20th century until about 1970, when Luigi Zecchin began to publish archival evidence from Venice of late 13th and early 14th century artisans painting glass beakers in great numbers. A whole series of related fragments are published and illustrated by Krueger, 2002. For fragments of a similar glass beaker see Wolfgang Pfeiffer 'Acrische Glaser' pp67-69 'Journal of Glass Studies' Vol. 12 1970.
Bibliographic references: Read 1902b / On a Saracenic Goblet of Enamelled Glass of Medieval Date (p.224-226); Dillon 1907 / Glass (176f); Lamm 1941 / Oriental glass of Medieval date found in Sweden and the early history of lustre painting (83f); Jensen 1945 / Syriske Glasskaar. Et inde om en Pilgrimsrejse, fundet paa Riberhus Voldsted (p. 249); Honey 1946 / Glass: a handbook for the study of glass vessels of all periods and countries & a guide to the museum collection (47); Gasparetto 1958 / Il vetro di Murano dalle origine ad oggi (33 and fig. 16); Cook 1958 / Notes and News; a fragment of Medieval glass from London (176f); Pfeiffer 1966 / Magister Aldrevandin me fecit (206f); Harden et al 1968 / Masterpieces of Glass (no. 205); Tait 1979 / The Golden Age of Venetian Glass (p.16, B & colour plate 1); Tait 1991 / Five Thousand Years of Glass (p. 152, fig. 192) (with fragments of a beaker from Restormel Castle); Carboni & Whitehouse 2001 / Glass of the Sultans (cat.151, pp.302-303) (entry by Carboni); Syson & Thornton 2001 / Objects of Virtue, Art in Renaissance Italy; Krueger 2002 / A second Aldrevandin Beaker and an update on a group of enamelled glasses (fig. 1); Robinson 2008 / Masterpieces of Medieval Art (p. 314); Lamm 1929-1930 / Mittelalterliche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten (pl.99.3); Shirley and Thornton 2017 / A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum (p.146, p.150, fig.221)
Location: On display (G40/dc7/no1)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2006 2 Oct-2007 18 Feb, France, Paris, Institut de Monde Arabe, Moments of Vision - Venice and the Islamic World 2002 20 Feb-15 May, Greece, Athens, Benaki Museum, Glass of the Sultans 2001 17 Sep-2002 14 Jan, USA, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Glass of the Sultans 2001 24 May-2 Oct, USA, Corning, Corning Museum of Glass, Glass of the Sultans 1988 25 Aug-28 Nov, Switzerland, Basel, Historisches Museum, Mittelalterliches Glas 1988 20 Apr-24 Jul, Germany, Bonn, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Phönix aus Sand und Asche - mittelalterliches Glas von der Karolingerzeit bis zur Renaissance
Condition: Crack to base.
Subjects: flower; heraldry
Associated names
Acquisition name: Purchased from: A S Drey; Purchased through: Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks
Previous owner
Acquisition date: 1876
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1876,1104.3
Conservation

Free entry

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