German, circa 1567

Ferdinand Edouard, Baron von Stumm (1843-1925);

thence by descent to Friedrich, Baron Von Stumm;

Christie's Geneva, 19 May 1997, lot 185;

With Galerie Payer, Zurich, 1997;

Private Collection;

Sotheby's Paris, 3 May 2016, lot 151 (sold for 123,000 EUR);

Where acquired by the present collector.

The present cup is designed to mimic a popular German Renaissance-era shoe called a Schnabelschuh. This piece may have been made as a token for a member of a shoemakers’ guild, and could have functioned as a trophy, a representation of the brotherhood, or possibly a gift for a senior member. It was most likely made for symbolic use, however it could have been employed for celebratory toasts on occasion.

Such cups are rare, with very few surviving today. The present work, with its finely engraved metal mounts, is a prime example of this type of piece. A very similar cup, formerly in the collection of John Pierpont Morgan, is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (accession number: 17.190.608a, b). A second similar example was made in Nurnberg circa 1580 by Melchior Mager, and was previously in the collections of Joseph Brummer and Siegfried Kramarsky.