Pattern-Molded Beaker (Warzenglas)

Object Details

Title:

Pattern-Molded Beaker (Warzenglas)

Artist/Maker(s):

Unknown

Culture:

Possibly German

Place(s):

Germany (possibly) (Place created)

Date:

17th century

Medium:

Mold-blown dark green glass with applied decoration

Dimensions:

15.1 x 8.7 cm (5 15/16 x 3 7/16 in.)

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From the mid-1500s throughout the 1600s, glasshouses in central and southern Germany, the Netherlands, and France produced many so-called Warzengläser(wart glasses). The walls of these vessels were pattern molded, with rows of egg-shaped, hemispherical, or rectilinear embossments.

Wart glasses were probably used for drinking or as altar reliquaries. Many wart glasses of colorless, amber yellow, violet, and light-green to bluish-green glass, still exist. The scale and proportions, tightly organized surface pattern, and dark, translucent, emerald-green color of the Getty Museum's glass make it exceptional in quality and color.

Bibliography

"Acquisitions/1984." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 13 (1985), p. 256, no. 247.

Bremer-David, Charissa et al. Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1993), p. 248, no. 438.

Wilson, Gillian, and Catherine Hess. Summary Catalogue of European Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2001), p. 231, no. 472.