Getty Museum

Beaker with the Arms of Hirt and Maier (Stangenglas)

Date

1590

Medium

Free-blown colorless (slightly greenish-purple) glass with gold leaf and enamel decoration

Culture

Probably southern Bohemian or the Böhmerwald

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

This *Stangenglas* celebrated the marriage of an agent and official of the imperial court of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and a Tirolean woman from a town near Innsbruck in present-day Austria. The husband's motto is *Hie zeitlichs Leid bringt d ewige Frevd* (Temporal sorrow here brings eternal bliss), while above the wife's crest is inscribed *Patientia Durum Frango* (Resignation is hard to shatter). The glass is dated 1590. Glasses such as this beaker were probably used for ceremonial drinking. A French visitor to Germany in 1688 remarked on German drinking habits: *You know the German are strange Drinkers; there are no People in the World more obliging, civil, and officious; but they have terrible Customs as to the Point of Drinking... Every Draught must be a Health, and as soon as you have emptied your Glass, you must present it full to him whose Health you drank. Do but reflect on these Customs, and see how it is impossible to leave off drinking...*

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