
Coconut tankard
Andreas Fleischer
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Vessels such as this one embody the late Renaissance taste for uniting exotic natural materials with artistic craftsmanship. Coconut shells, treasured since ancient times, were thought to have miraculous powers, including the ability to neutralize poisoned wine. With the fibrous husk removed, the shell could be polished and mounted as a lavish drinking vessel. The sculptural handle is derived from a model used around 1600 by goldsmiths in Augsburg, Regensburg, Cologne, and elsewhere. These models were acquired as lead casts by journeymen during the travels they were obliged to make before becoming a guild master. Literature Fine European Silver. Sale cat., Sotheby’s, Zurich, November 18, 1977, p. 89, no. 188, and frontispiece. Judit H. Kolba. Hungarian Silver: The Nicolas M. Salgo Collection. London, 1996, p. 36, no. 14. References Elemér Kőszeghy. Magyarországi ötvösjegyek a középkortól 1867-ig / Merkzeichen der Goldschmiede Ungarns vom Mittelalter bis 1867. Budapest, 1936, likely no. 1379 [maker’s mark]. For a coconut cup formerly belonging to a Hungrian aristocratic family, see Judit H. Kolba and Annamária T. Németh. Schätze des Ungarischen Barock. Exh. cat. Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau. Hanau, 1991, no. 18, pp. 73–4. [Wolfram Koeppe 2015]
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.