Glassware, Beaker with swirled ribs

Based on a German beaker (Maigelbecher) dated 1450 - 1525 in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. no. 84.DK.523. Photo at right.

This type of slightly flared beaker or Maigelbecher, with its finely patterned surface of slender diagonal ribs, seems to have been made and sold over a large area of Germany. Because of the large and prolific area of production, it is impossible to identify either a particular glasshouse or even a region where pieces such as this could have been produced.

In one single small German town, more than a hundred glasshouses were situated a mile or less from the network of medieval roads that connected the region with larger urban markets. Glassware would be carefully wrapped in straw to protect it and then placed in hand baskets to be transported by cart or on foot across Germany, the Netherlands and England.

Small cylindrical beakers of this type may be seen in Dieric Bouts, "Christ in the House of Simon" (1440s, Staatliche Museen, Berlin), and Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament (1464-67, Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven)

Hand made in the US by Jason Klein of Historical Glassworks. Please note that due to the handcrafted nature of this item, dimensions & capacity are approximate and will vary slightly from piece to piece.

Cylindrical body with diagonal ribs. Pale green glass

4” high, 3.25" at rim, approx. 9 oz. capacity.