Collection Online
Goblet
Medium
glass (diamond-point engraved)
Measurements
19.6 × 9.5 cm diameter
Place/s of Execution
Leiden, Holland, the Netherlands
Inscription
engraved in base c.: Willem Van Heemskerk. Æ : 68 ½ Aº / , 1681.
Accession Number
D31-1989
Department
International Decorative Arts
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of Australian Consolidated Industries Limited, Governor, 1989
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work

This glass is decorated with an elegant, calligraphic engraving in Dutch which reads: ‘Faithful in everything’. The glass commemorates the marriage of Coenraed de Bucquoy and Maria Muissart, as engraved on the underside of the foot. Van Heemskerk also signed the glass, with the date 1681, and gave his age as sixty-eight and a half. Van Heemskerk was a prosperous cloth merchant in Leiden but became most well-known for his exquisite calligraphic inscriptions on bottles, plates and drinking glasses. He specialised in short sayings and poems and his graceful, fluent lines are recognised as unparalleled achievements in glass calligraphy.

Physical description
Round funnel bowl engraved with scrolls and flourishes.