Bohemian Glass Beaker depicting Saint Mark

Label

These five vessels for food and drink include golden elements that elevate them above everyday tableware. For some, like the Polish tankard or the beaker with eight sibyls, the gilding adds to the significance of the decorative subject: the tankard bears the coat-of-arms of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, while the sibyls on the beaker are Grecian prophetesses who were believed to predict the birth of Christ. Similarly, the gilded border on the Sèvres porcelain plate reflects the luxury of the Palace of Versailles in France on an object that could be collected to evoke memories of a past trip or to function as a form of imaginary travel.

A combination of technical expertise and valuable material could also elevate a common object, such as a cup or ewer. Czech glassmakers honed the ability to enclose thin sheets of gold between two layers of blown glass to craft highly desirable pieces like the beaker with Saint Mark, here shown with its protective case. The elaborately decorated ewer, in contrast, was the product of makers from several different geographic traditions—not only the Netherlandish metalworkers who cast the body and the Syrian artisans who added the engraved and punched decoration but also the later 19th-century gilder who adapted the ewer to suit changing tastes that favored bright gold surfaces.

From the 2024 exhibition Gold: Materiality, Morality, and Metaphor, curated by Ashley Offill, Curator of Collections

Exhibition History

Gold: Materiality, Morality, and Metaphor, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 14, 2024.

Provenance

Hiram Hitchcock (1832-1900, Class of 1872H), Hanover, New Hampshire; bequeathed to his second wife, Emily Howe Hitchcock (1852-1912), Hanover, New Hampshire, 1900; bequeathed to present collection, 1912.

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