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A GERMAN PARCEL-GILT SILVER BEAKER MARK OF THE MASTER OF THE UNICORN, POSSIBLY FOR MARX BURMEISTER, NUREMBERG, 1645-1651 Tapering cylindrical on a waisted base, the body engraved with three numbered emblematic scenes, each framed by a flower cartouche beneath a German inscription, with trophies of fruit and flowers between, marked under base and scratched with later inscription 'Beny Lehman 1801' 3 1/8 in. (8 cm.) high 3 oz. 10 dwt. (110 gr.) The German inscriptions read: 1 'O Gott erhalt die Shriftenheit im stetem friedt und einigheit' - 'O God keep scripture in constant peace and unity' 2 'der Iene dass wir taglich trebn nach undern gott (v : h) unds lebn' - 'the one that we strive daily for another god (v and h) live' 3 'fuhr uns auss der verganglichteit zu in unerverenden fried und freid' - 'lead us from the past to unending peace and happiness'.
The beaker is engraved with three emblematic political/religious scenes which appear to refer to the Thirty Years War and as a reminder of the need to maintain the new peace of Westphalia. The Thirty Years War took place between 1618 and 1648, initially between the Protestant and Catholic states in the Holy Roman Empire; however rapidly it turned into a general European war involving most of the great powers, France, Spain, Sweden, England, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Bohemia etc. and was a continuation of the France-Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence.
Emblems were a very effective way to promulgate ideas; the concept had been created by Andrea Alciato of Milan (1492-1550) with small woodcuts which were generally accompanied by an epigram, typically moral, religious or poetic. These became very popular in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries especially in Germany where they were commonly used on beakers. A beaker by the same maker dated 1642, in the collection of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, is illustrated in K. Tebbe et al. Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst, Nuremberg, 2007, fig. 560, p. 928. Another by the master of the Lamb, Nuremberg, 1658-1659 is in the Museum Tucherschloss und Hirsvogelsaal of the Museen der stadt Nürnberg, illustrated in Tebbe, op. cit., fig. 564, p. 929. Both are similarly engraved.