| Description
The cup is of oval section and stands on a domed foot with a shaped
border. The foot is decorated in opaque and translucent enamel with
grotesque masks, sprays of flowers, and a coat of arms flanked by
the initials G.N.C.A.R.C.I.; on the underside are four more grotesque
masks. The stem is formed as three dolphins with entwined tails
enamelled in translucent green on a blue base. The lower part of
the bowl is moulded and decorated with a band of translucent enamelled
flowers, with an inscription above reading,
LEOPOLDO IMPERATORI
SIT LONGAEVA VITA ET PROSPERITAS
(long life and prosperity to Emperor Leopold).
The eight-lobed upper part of the cup is
decorated with applied pierced and polychrome enamelled panels of
flowers and exotic birds and incorporates a portrait medallion of
Emperor Leopold I.
Construction
The foot and bowl are raised,
and the stem is hollow cast. A gold shaft of square section with
a screw thread at the lower end is soldered to the base of the bowl;
it passes through the foot and is attached by a nut on the underside.
Each enamelled panel appears to be attached by three small screws
soldered to the bowl.
Heraldry
The arms are those of Rosenberg, for Reichsgraf (count) Georg Nikolaus
zu Rosenberg (1623-1695), privy councillor to the Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold I (r. 1658-1705) and Berggraf of Känten, also known
as Carinthia, in southern Austria.
Commentary
This gold cup was presented in 1665 by Count Georg Nikolaus zu Rosenberg
to Emperor Leopold I in commemoration of the signing of a peace
treaty with the Turks at Vasvar in the previous year. The initials
around the coat of arms stand for "Georg Nikolaus Consilarius
Augustus Romanorum Caesar Imperator" (Georg Nikolaus, privy
councillor to the Holy Roman Emperor). The Latin inscription on
the bowl contains in cryptic form the date of presentation, which
can be deduced by regarding the larger capital letters as Roman
numerals and adding them together, producing the sum of 1665.
A presentation of such opulence clearly
reflects the extent of the Turkish inroads made in south-eastern
Europe at this time by demonstrating the degree of gratitude of
a major landowner whose estates and entire fortune had been seriously
threatened before the peace.
The absence of any marks makes impossible
a firm attribution of the cup to one particular centre. The most
striking parallel, however, is between the enamelled panels on the
Rosenberg cup and those on a table clock of about 1670 by Heinrich
Mannlich of Augsburg and it is on this comparison that the present
provisional attribution is based.
Glossaries
raised - formed from a
single sheet of metal by repeated hammering over an anvil
back to the
collection
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the
Gilbert silver