The chronological boundaries are rather wide – from the 14th till early 20th century, the stylistic range is from Gothic to Modern art. The works of German and English craftsmen are most interesting for their quantity and quality. The 18th – 19th century of Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Belgian, French silversmiths are represented by single items.

German silver of the 14th – 19th Centuries

    The collection of German jewelry art is most complete. It is only natural, considering the distinguished place occupied by German metal in history of West-European applied art of the 15th – 17th century. Apart from the works of such major centers as Nuremberg, Augsburg, Hamburg, the collection includes single items (or just fragments)made by Lubeck, Dresden, Leipzig, Essen, Munster, Rostock and Breslau craftsman. The earliest work of German silversmiths in the Museum collection is the chalice of the first three decades of the 14th century, donated to the Trinity Monastery by Tsar Ivan the Terrible. This Gothic vessel is a rare and, most probably, unique specimen in our museum collections.

    Nuremberg. The collection of Nuremberg silver is represented by the works of the second half of the 16th – first three decades of the 17th century. Stylistically they are Renaissance and Baroque monuments . In Nuremberg it was the time of jewelry art flowering, the time of mass production of precious articles and their wide-spread occurrence in Germany and far outside the country. Of all kinds of objects the collection presents goblets - the most characteristic works of the Nuremberg silversmiths. Since the late 16th century, a silver gilded goblet, of German work as a rule, was the most significant and valuable present for representatives of higher society in Russia. The Museum collection includes goblets made by Nicolaus Schmidt, Caspar and Hans Beutmuller.

    Аugsburg. Augsburg is another center of German silver work. It is represented by a more diverse group of the 16th – early 18th century articles. Augsburg was formed as a major center of silverwork in the Renaissance epoch in the second half of the 16th century. The Augsburg Renaissance artists created whole albums and series of sheets with ornaments for gold- and silversmiths. The goblet with the Augsburg master’s mark “The crossed hatchets” is an example of their use. The gilded pounced goblet with an egg-shaped bowl can be referred to the late Renaissance Augsburg silver.

    The second half of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century became the best periods in Augsburg silverwork. The silversmiths successfully mastered new decorative motifs and ornaments in silver tableware. Few items from the Museum collection demonstrate luxury and variety of baroque ornaments. The baroque dish-basin made by the Augsburg master Hans Jacob I Baur from the Museum collection is brilliantly chased. With impressive size, glittering precious metal and interesting theme “The Triumph of Amphitrite” it looks like a magnificent panel. Both in Europe and in Russia such “basins” were fixed on the walls or exhibited on special stands in the palace halls.

    Hamburg and other German towns. The third major center of German artistic silver is represented by several items. There are three Hamburg mugs. The mug is a specific kind of tableware. It appeared in German Renaissance culture. The high cylindrical vessel on a low bottom or without any base, with a necessary lid and handle was widespread in Germany. One of the mugs in the Museum collection is thickly covered with engraved patterns and narrative compositions.

    In 16th-17th centuries, German masters skillfully worked not only with silver, but also with the diversified materials, often exotic: a stone, rock crystal, a coco, amber, nacre. Such products had known in Europe since antique times. The example to that is a cup with a bowl from jasper. Vessels from jasper both in Europe and in Russia were appreciated not only beauty of a stone, transparent in a thin layer and various on colour. These subjects supplement an overall picture of gold and silver business of Germany, to no miscellaneous expressing to the tendency of regional art and reflecting various steps of development of styles of the Renaissance and baroque.

    German Classical silver is represented by the inkstand made by a Dresden silversmith in the third quarter of the 18th century. The inkstand is shaped like an antique urn on a square bottom. The models for such works were antique archeological finds from Herculaneum and Padua in Italy. The Museum sample of the so-called “stylistic shape”, i. e. made in a certain style, is the rococo tea-pot. Its body with an elongated spout and wavy surface, intricate floral pattern with a shell (“rocaille”) motif reproduce the rococo shapes.