Beaker

Date: Early 1500s

Only those with sufficient means could afford the best quality European table glass. Vessels like this exquisitely decorated, inscribed, 'paynted and guilte' beaker were greatly prized and often made to commission. The beaker has the characteristic gilt dotted enamel 'patera' decoration common on fine Venetian glassware of about 1500, and was recovered from a chalk-lined cesspit in Great Tower Street with a leather patten and other table-glass fragments. The vessel was probably 'cristallo' (colourless) originally, the present purple tinge having been caused by the chemical breakdown of the manganese oxides which were originally used as a decolourising agent.

Accession number: TWR89[182]<3>

Place made: Italy?

Place of collection: 1-4 Great Tower Street EC3 [City of London]

Material: glass

Measurements: whole: 100 mm; diameter at base: 66 mm

Gallery location: Case 18.1