Attributed to Jacob Heise (active 1654-1663) Königsberg, circa 1650-1660

the body formed of eight panels, depicting female personifications of the Virtues, with animals below, including Faith with a cross and book, Hope with an anchor, Charity with two children, Fortitude with a club, Justice with a sword and scales, Prudence with mirror and snake, Temperance pouring liquid from one vessel into another, and a final figure holding a lamb and book, possibly representing Humility; the lid centred by an intaglio of a lady with a wine cup and jug surrounded by scrolling foliage and scenes of putti riding sea creatures, the interior of the lid centred by an intaglio of a man holding a wine-cup; the base of the interior of the tankard centred by an intaglio of the Judgement of Paris; the foot of the tankard formed of scrolling foliage amber sections; the handle carved with the head and torso of a woman; with silver gilt mounts

Translucent and jewel-like, amber lends itself to the carving of luxurious works of art. Its origins were mythologised in Ovid's Metamorphosis, where the mourning sisters of Phaeton, the god struck down to earth by Jupiter's thunderbolt, wept for so long that their tears turned to amber. It was only in the 18th Century that amber’s rather more prosaic origins in fossilised resin were discovered.

The present tankard belongs to a group discussed by Rohde in 1937, all depicting the Virtues, with the exception of one tankard showing the Vices. Rohde gave the attribution of Heise and his workshop, which Tait corroborates. Another tankard in a private collection, which has been added to this group was included in the recent Bernstein für Thron und Altar exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (cat. no.20).

The attribution to Heise is based on two signed and dated carved amber nautiluses, one illustrated by Rohde (figs. 130 & 131) in the collections of Königsberg castle (untraced) dated 1654 and another in the Dresden Grünes Gewölbe dated 1659. Both are carved with putti riding on sea monsters closely comparable to those seen on the lid of the present tankard. The mermaids which divide the sections of the bowl of the Dresden nautilus are very reminiscent of the tapering bare-breasted female forms which decorate the handle of each tankard in the group including the present example.

One of the tankards is dated 1659. This dated tankard, on loan to the British museum, belongs to the Parish church of North Mimms, Hertfordshire. The Mimms tankard has animals carved on the foot similar to those appearing below the Virtues on the present tankard. Its lid is also carved with putti on sea monsters. The motifs of putti, animals, scrolling foliage and birds with fruit appear variously on all the tankards in the group. The figures of the Virtues themselves appear to be carved from the same designs throughout the group. The present tankard includes all the motifs, and is particularly fine and elaborate, with the sections above and below the figures carved with birds and fruit and animals rather than the simpler scrolling foliage which decorates the these spaces on the majority of the other tankards. The condition of the present tankard is also exceptional; two of the other tankards – those in the Berlin Schloßmuseum and the Munich Schatzkammer – have lost their foot section. Moreover it is embellished inside and out with intaglios of white amber. The circular enamel depicting Temperance which centres the exterior of the lid can be compared to another on the interior lid of the Vices tankard which formed part of the Waddeston Bequest to the British Museum. In addition the present tankard has two interior circular intaglios, one on the cover of a man drinking and one at the base of the Judgement of Paris.

Jacob Heise was certainly based in Königsberg between the years 1654-1663, as witnessed by the signatures of the two nautiluses mentioned above and a bowl, now in Budapest, dated 1663. However, little more is known of his life and work as the records of the Königsberg amber workers guild between 1643 and 1710 have unfortunately been lost.

RELATED LITERATURE
Rohde, pp.39-41, figs.119-124 & 130-133; Tait (1981), pp.91-92, pl.XVIA & VXIB; Tait (1991), no.12, pp.142-160, pl.4, fig.172; Bernstein für Thron und Altar, no.20, pp.50-51