Art Institute of Chicago
Coconut Cup with Biblical Scenes from the Life of David
Carving: Netherlands; mounts: London
- Date
- 1577-78
- Medium
- Gilded silver and coconut shell
- Culture
- London
- Department
- Applied Arts of Europe
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
Coconuts, a precious curio from the New World, were so highly prized in Europe during the early modern era that they were fashioned into elegant vessels by silversmiths. They made noteworthy additions to princely curiosity cabinets and may also have served a medicinal purpose. John Parkinson’s Theatrum Botanicum (1640), for instance, credits wine drunk from a coconut with curing colic, epilepsy, and rheumatoid disorders.
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