An important Dutch diamond-point engraved calligraphic green glass roemer, 17th century

On loan from the Stilte-Stichting Landgoed Den Bosch Collection to the Museum Arnhem from February 2004 until recently.

The common phrase 'Maest houd Staet' is recorded on calligraphic vessels including a goblet by Willem Jacobsz van Heemskerk from the Joseph R. Rittman collection, sold in these Rooms, 14th November 1995, lot 62. This inscription extoling the virtue of moderation is perhaps derived from Seneca’s Moderata Durant.

Whilst the author of the calligraphy on the present roemer is not certain, detailed examination of the style reveals interesting stylistic comparisons. F.G.A.M. Smit in Uniquely Dutch Seventeenth-Century Calligraphy on Glass: A Preliminary Catalogue, Peterborough, 1989 (unpublished manuscript) lists three goblets with the same or similar inscriptions (p.91, M8 to M10). In his catalogue Smit attributes an engraved A to Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher, see p.24, fig.24, which is remarkably similar in technique to the 'M' on the present goblet, perhaps indicating the engraver of this piece. The elaborate mirroring of this distinctive character to form the letter M appears to be a unique characteristic; Smit suggests that this form was apparently not used by subsequent glass engravers. Although no signed pieces by Maria Tesselschade are recorded it is thought she worked only on roemers.

In a confluence of glass engraving and calligraphy the pastime of calligraphic engraving on glass became an elegant diversion for educated ladies as well as professionals. The hobby is seen in parallel with other pursuits such as embroidery and the creation of volumes of emblemata and alba amicorum. Sisters Anna Roemers Visscher (1583-1651) and Maria Tesselschade (1594-1649) were gifted early exponents of diamond-point engraving and merged calligraphy with botanical engravings. Anna lived in Leiden between 1646-1650 and may have influenced others in the art of calligraphic engraving; their near contemporary, Anna Marie van Schurman (1607-1678) also left several important signed works. Notable exponents of the style include the prolific and long-lived Willem Jacobsz. van Heemskerk (1613-1692), as well as three school masters, François Cramà (1637-1718), Mathieu Petit (d. 1721) and Bastiaan Boers (1650-1713).