Related vessels from Augsburg or Nuremberg date between 1580 and 1620. Standing cups like this one are often depicted in still-life paintings and in views of ceremonial buffets or stepped sideboards. These images underline the prestige of this type of drinking vessel, characterized by tapering sides, waisted domed foot, and a baluster stem. Many of these cups have lids, though there is no sign that this example ever had one. Having served a secular function, standing cups might quite often be later donated to Protestant churches to be used for the communion. A base metal weight has been added to this example to give it extra stability, perhaps an indication of its change of function.

Literature
European Silver / Pièces d’orfèvrerie. Sale cat., Christie’s, Geneva, November 18, 1981, p. 28, no. 61.
Judit H. Kolba. Hungarian Silver: The Nicolas M. Salgo Collection. London, 1996, p. 39, no. 17.

References
A cup with a similar vasiform stem was sold by Dr. Fischer Kunstauktionen in Heilbronn, May 12, 2012, no. 583.
Important English, Continental and American Silver and Gold. Christie’s, New York, May 17, 2011, no. 102.

[Wolfram Koeppe 2015]