Standing cup 1675 - 1685

This standing cup was made by Hermann Schwinger, a glassmaker active in Brandenburg, Germany, during the latter half of the 17th century. Drinking vessels such as this were luxury items, and were more likely to be found in the collections of the wealthy merchant class than on the tables of common people. The fashion for clear glass, *cristallo*, had spread from Venice throughout Europe, and the decoration of such pieces was itself a kind of display of wealth, of the time and skill required to create the subtle engraved textures that you can see here. The tulip motif would likely have been drawn from pattern books of the period. The social role of an object like this, then, was complex: on one hand, it was an object of private pleasure and personal display, but it also could stand in for the increasing wealth and cultural sophistication of the region. We can find similar glasses represented in contemporary still life paintings, where they stand as emblems of worldly success.