Nautilus Cup
maker Cornelis Jansz van der Burch (Dutch, active in Delft, d. 1615)
1607
- Medium
- Silver-gilt, nautilus shell
- Classification
- Metalwork
- Dimensions
- Overall: 33.3 x 10.6 x 20.1 cm (13 1/8 x 4 3/16 x 7 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- Netherlands, Holland, Delft
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Decorative Art and Design
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Nautilus shells were brought to the Netherlands from Indonesia. Skilled Dutch silversmiths mounted them in silver, creating luxurious vessels that were sought after by wealthy collectors. Early Dutch nautilus cups are mainly associated with the city of Delft, although only a few other examples made in Delft are known from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. They feature the dramatic motif of a sea monster’s head.
