Tankard

Johan Nützel, Stockholm, 1695. Height 21 cm.

The lid, bottom and sides of this unusually large cylindrical tankard are inlaid with a total of 45 silver coins, the backs of which are visible inside the tankard. The outer surface is, apart from the coins, gilded, and the inner surface is entirely gilded. There are 24 Swedish coins, 20 German coins, and one Danish coin. The oldest coin is a Saxon thaler from 1530 (George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony), the youngest coin is a Swedish riksdaler of Charles XI from 1676. Some of them are commemorative coins.

Due to the size and high quality of the handicraft, the tankard is intended not only to demonstrate the wealth of its owner but also to display the goldsmith’s skills, more than for real daily use. The way the coins have been curved to fit the surface and how the surface has been thoroughly filled with a relief of vine leaves demonstrate skilled craftmanship. The abundant gilding is also telling of the wealth used on the tankard.

The loop-shaped handle is rectangular in cross-section and ends on the bottom with a shieldlike widening. At the top part of the handle, there is a relief of a shield-bearing lion, as well as a plastically shaped spherical knob which depicts a lion hidden between leaves about to attack. The spherical feet with leaf decorations and lion motifs resemble the knob in the handle.

The tankard, made by Johan Nützel, is unusually large and holds several litres, so that filled with beer, drinking from it would be hard due to the weight (the tankard itself weighs over 3.2 kg).

The bottom of the tankard has an engraved, exceptionally wordy Latin signature by the maker, which also reveals the commissioner and time of production: me fecit et concinnavit Holmiae Joh. Nissel pro. Joh. Philippo Kilbergero secr. et not. publ. eiusque uxore Euphros. Mar. Belocew mence maio anno 1695 (“I was made and designed in Stockholm by Johan Nützel for the secretary and notary public Johan Philipp Kilberger and his spouse Euphrosyne Maria Belocew in May 1695”). The tankard was undoubtedly made for wedding celebrations.

The later owners of the tankard have also recognised its exceptionality and value, which is evident in the engraving added to the lid, in which the tankard, along with some other silver objects, was determined to be inherited entailed (i.e. undivided inheritance) in a household providing riding stables to the army, located in Katainen (Östansjö) in Taivassalo: Handelsmannen och Notfiskare Ålerman i Stockholm Högachtad herr Johan Österman, föd d. 24: Junii 1695 död d. 23 September 1764 Testamenterar denna Silf[ve]r kanna til Rusthållet Östansiö i Töfsala sockn, såsom fidei Commis för alla de manliga arfingar af des Släkt, som sam[m]a Rusthåll koma att bebo, med vilkor at hvarken pantsätjas, försäljas eller bortskienkas ;;; wäger 242 lod. (“Merchant, seine-fisher and alderman in Stockholm, highly esteemed mister Johan Österman, b. 24 June 1695, d. 23 September 1764, entails this sil[ve]r tankard on the Östansjö rustholli in Taivassalo to all the male heirs of his family who inhabit said rustholli, provided that the tankard is not pawned, sold or donated away. Weighs 242 lots.”)

Johan Österman also entailed a silver tankard as a donation to another rustholli he owned, in Kaurissalo, Kustavi. This tankard is more recent (it was made by Henrik Wikström in Uusikaupunki in 1828), but the sides and the lid are inlaid with silver coins in the same way as the tankard of Kaitainen.