This past week, I came across an unusual object; she was a lady made of silver, wearing a hollow skirt and holding a small pivoting vessel above her head!
She is a wager cup, a popular German party gaiety of the 16th century. In German, a Jungfrauenbecher!
The party guest were offered a drink from the larger cup (the hollow skirt), as well as a smaller drink from the pivoting vessel. The object of the game was to successfully drink both without spilling a drop.
Imagine bringing that to the next party you attend, a potential hostess gift?
The wager cup also has a history of being used in wedding ceremonies, the groom drinking the larger portion and offering his bride the pivoting cup.
The lovely drinking companions are costumed in Venetian dress, with scroll and foliate decoration to the skirts, leading to naturalistic details of the bodices and faces of the leading ladies. A decadent German celebration tool, compared to the much simpler English and American reproductions. The latter two countries dressed the ladies in far simpler garb.
Look at the two German examples we are presenting in the September Estate Sale!
By Catherine Rigdon