The Cup

In sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century Europe, nautilus shells from Asia were highly desired goods. The Dutch East India Company vessel Witte Leeuw, which sank in 1613 on its way from Bantam, Indonesia to Amsterdam, is among the many ships that carried them alongside Asian spices and Chinese ceramics.

Having reached Europe on board of Portuguese, Spanish or Dutch vessels, nautilus shells became part of elite collections that were kept in churches, held at imperial and royal courts or owned by scholars and wealthy merchants.

Many of them were transformed into cups by early modern European goldsmiths that could be used for drinking games. Shell cups figure prominently in countless representations of European collections and numerous still life paintings. The drinking vessel from our example was made by the German goldsmith Marx Kornblum (active 1570–1591) and originally kept in the famous cabinet of curiosities by Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595) in Innsbruck, Austria. [Cf]