{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O91448"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O91448/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN6603/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN6603/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AN6603","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JT7073","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O91448/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O91448","accessionNumber":"627-1872","objectType":"Standing cup","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This gilded silver cup is a rare survival. Although it represents a standard seventeenth-century form, the contemporary inscription round the rim identifies it as a 'Bath gift' (or, in German, 'Badgeschenk'), a type of gift associated with the health-giving thermal baths of Switzerland. By the seventeenth century, town councils were careful to honour important visitors to their thermal baths with a valuable gift, such as an inscribed silver or silver-gilt cup. The scene engraved in the bowl of the cup depicts a feast described in the Old Testament (Genesis 43.34). Joseph invites his brothers, who are estranged from him, to a lavish feast at his house. It is an appropriate subject to decorate a cup intended as a gift to honour a governor of Zurich, the identity of whom is unknown today.","physicalDescription":"Deep tazza or standing bowl, on inverted baluster stem with bell shaped foot bearing an inscription on the outside of the rim, and an engraved scene on the inside of the bowl that shows Joseph honouring his brothers with a feast (Genesis 43.34).","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Boller, Hans Rudolph","id":"A10818"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Matthäus Merian","id":"AUTH316745"},"association":{"text":"Engraver","id":"x30810"},"note":"The scene on the inside of the dish is copied from an engraving by Merian."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"}],"techniques":[{"text":"raised","id":"AAT237068"},{"text":"engraving","id":"AAT53829"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silver-gilt, engraved","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006AN6603","2017JT7073"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES399659"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Tazza","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Zurich","id":"x29272"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1675-1680","earliest":"1675-01-01","latest":"1680-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"28356","id":"O1069858"},"association":""},{"object":{"text":"449-1873","id":"O295536"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"10.50","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"foot","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"24.30","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"19.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Across the rim of the bowl","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"German, engraved in gothic script around the outer rim of the bowl of the cup:\n\n: Joseph sein · Brüdere : ein · mahl-Zeit gab: sein · Herz zu öffnen · es · ein anlaβ · war: Ein · geschir ins Bad wir thunddar-reichen: Eüch · Herr · Statthalter · zum Liebes zeichen\n\nMarks indicating words contracted over 'Brüdere' (over 'ere'), 'zu' (over'u'), 'anlaβ' (over 'β'), 'thunddar-reichen' (over 'u') and 'zum' (over 'u').","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":"A8728"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"'Joseph gave a dinner for his brothers; it was an occasion to open his heart. We donate a vessel at the bath to you Oh Governor, as a sign of love.'","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"The allusion to Joseph in the inscription refers to the scene of feasting engraved on the inside of the bowl; the Old Testament scene depicted is described in Genesis 43.34."},{"content":"On upper side of lip:\na duck, with outstretched wings on two leaves, in a shield-shaped punch, the maker's mark of Hans Rudolph Boller of Zurich (born 1625, master 1648, died after 1682).\nthe letter 'Z' cancelled with a diagonal line, in a shield-shaped punch, town mark for Zurich.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":"A8728"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""},{"content":"The Arabic number '1411', engraved on the underside of the foot-rim.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"This gilded silver cup is a rare survival. Although it represents a standard seventeenth-century form, the contemporary inscription round the rim identifies it as a 'Bath gift' (or, in German, 'Badgeschenk'), a type of gift associated with the health-giving thermal baths of Switzerland. By the seventeenth century, town councils were careful to honour important visitors to their thermal baths with a valuable gift, such as an inscribed silver or silver-gilt cup. Sixteenth-century depictions of these baths show naked men and women seated in open-air baths around a floating table; the most important among them are offered wine in a shallow, footed cup similar to this one (Preiswerk-Lösel: 1991, plate 93, p. 114). The cup now in the V&A was presented to an un-named governor of Zurich. It is a particularly striking gift, as in theory the puritan religious strictures of Zurich town council prohibited such expenditure (Lösel: 1983, p. 70).\nHans Rudolf Boller, who made the cup, was born in 1625, the son of a Regensburg minister. He was apprenticed to the Zurich goldsmith Melchior Trüb between 1639-43 (Lösel: 1983, p. 162). Little of his work survives. There is a spoon bearing his mark in the V&A (449-1873), and his other three works are all cups, two of these in the form of heraldic beasts (a lion and a lynx).\nThe scene engraved in the bowl of the cup depicts a feast described in the Old Testament (Genesis 43.34) and derives from illustrations by the engraver Matthäus Merians for an illustrated Bible of 1625. The skilled execution of the engraving on the cup suggests this was the work of a professional engraver (Lösel: 1983, p. 72).\nThe Museum purchased the cup from Messrs Goldschmidt, Frankfurt, in 1872.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Standing cup, gilded silver, engraved, Switzerland (Zurich), mark of Hans Rudoph Boller, 1675-1680","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Silver, ed. Philippa Glanville, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996. ISBN 1851771891"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Preiswerk-Lösel, Eva-Maria. Kunsthandwerk. Ars Helvetica, Die visuelle Kultur der Schweiz, vol. 8. Disentis: Desertina, 1991. ISBN 3856371591"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lösel, Eva Maria. Zürcher Goldschmiede Kunst vom 13. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert. Zürich: Zürich Buchverlag Berichthaus, 1983. ISBN 3855720479 "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz, ed. by Heinrich Türler, Marcel Godet and Victor Attinger, 7 vols. Neuenburg: Administration des Historisch-Biographischen Lexikons der Schweiz, 1921-1934. \r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Schneider, Jenny. Vorlagen für das schweizerische Kunstgewerbe. Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte. 1956, vol. 16."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"TAZZA\r\nSilver-gilt.\r\nTown mark of Zurich. Maker, Hans Ulrich Stockar (master 1627, doed 1682). Probably 1638-42.\r\nThe engraved scene of Joseph feasting his brethren is taken from an etching by Mathaus Merian in the Merian bibel, (Strassburg, 1630).\r\n627-1872","date":{"text":"Pre-2000","earliest":"2000-01-01","latest":"2000-12-31"}},{"text":"14. TAZZA\nSilver-gilt\nZurich, Switzerland, around 1680.\nMark of Hans Rudolph Boller.\nThe engraved scene shows the Old Testament scene of Joseph feasting [with] his brothers in Egypt. The inscription translates as \"Joseph gave a dinner for his brothers; it was an occasion to open his heart. We donate a vessel into the bath to you Oh Governor, as a sign of love\".\n627-1872","date":{"text":"26/11/2002","earliest":"2002-11-26","latest":"2002-11-26"}}],"partNumbers":["627-1872"],"accessionNumberNum":"627","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1872,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-06","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-09","availableToBook":true}}