Tankard by Johann Bernhard Strauss and Andreas I Wickert, Germany (Augsburg), 1651. Carved ivory with silver and silver-gilt mounts. Whole height: 46.5cm Width: 29.2cm Depth: 19.7cm Ivory group on lid height: 13.5cm Ivory drum height: 21cm Weight: 4.7kg © Victoria and Albert Museum, London (4529-1858)

Hercules in combat with the centaur Nessus is shown as a freestanding ivory group on the lid. Round the ivory drum of the tankard are carved mythological scenes: Venus and Cupid, Minerva, Ceres, the drunken Silenus supported by bacchantes, Triton, and Neptune and Amphitrite riding on a chariot. A moustachioed man in contemporary dress is also depicted, seemingly gesturing towards a statuette of Hercules in a niche; this may well be a self-portrait of the artist. He is next to Minerva, goddess of the arts, who protectively holds out her hand. Behind the figures is a rusticated stone archway. The metal mounts show auricular masks and foliate forms.

The tankard is signed on Neptune's chariot: 'Bernard Straus goldschmid fec.' and signed again and dated on the underside of the silver gilt lid: 'ANNO 1651. Bernard Straus. Goldschmidgesel, Von Marckdorf am Bodensee, Fecit, A. Vinde''. 'A. Vinde' is the abbreviation for 'Augusta Vindelicorum, the Latin name for Augsburg. 'Goldschmidgesel' should be translated as 'goldsmith's apprentice', and may imply that Strauss was learning to be a goldsmith at this point, and that possibly the lid pre-dates the tankard proper, given the slightly different form of signature on the ivory drum.

The Hercules and Centaur group on the lid seems to be an adaptation of Giambologna's monumental marble group, Hercules slaying a Centaur of c.1595-1600 in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. Strauss probably knew this in a reduced bronze version, of which there were examples in German courts. The figures around the drum are ultimately inspired by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).

This remarkable work is one of the great examples of baroque ivory carving in the collection, and a harmonious combination of sculpture and goldsmith’s work. The silver marks are those of Andreas I Wickert of Augsburg (1600-1661). Other ivory tankards with mounts by him are in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, the Kunsthistorischesmuseum Vienna, the Staatliche Museen Kassel, the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, the Schlossmuseum in Gotha, and the Hermitage in St Petersburg; a silver and silver gilt tankard by him is in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich. The present tankard was also reproduced in an electrotype version by Franchi and Son in Clerkenwell, London in 1859.