Coconut tankard

Vessels such as this one embody the late Renaissance taste for uniting exotic natural materials with artistic craftsmanship. Coconut shells, treasured since ancient times, were thought to have miraculous powers, including the ability to neutralize poisoned wine. With the fibrous husk removed, the shell could be polished and mounted as a lavish drinking vessel. The sculptural handle is derived from a model used around 1600 by goldsmiths in Augsburg, Regensburg, Cologne, and elsewhere. These models were acquired as lead casts by journeymen during the travels they were obliged to make before becoming a guild master.

Literature
Fine European Silver. Sale cat., Sotheby’s, Zurich, November 18, 1977, p. 89, no. 188, and frontispiece.
Judit H. Kolba. Hungarian Silver: The Nicolas M. Salgo Collection. London, 1996, p. 36, no. 14.

References
Elemér Kőszeghy. Magyarországi ötvösjegyek a középkortól 1867-ig / Merkzeichen der Goldschmiede Ungarns vom Mittelalter bis 1867. Budapest, 1936, likely no. 1379 [maker’s mark].
For a coconut cup formerly belonging to a Hungrian aristocratic family, see Judit H. Kolba and Annamária T. Németh. Schätze des Ungarischen Barock. Exh. cat. Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau. Hanau, 1991, no. 18, pp. 73–4.

[Wolfram Koeppe 2015]