A Potsdam Hochschnitt engraved beaker and cover, by Gottfried Spiller, circa 1700. Photo Bonhams

The flared cylindrical form decorated in Hoch- und Tiefschnitt with a continuous frieze of dancing Bacchanalian putti holding trailing garlands of fruit and flowers and floral wreaths above a relief band of acanthus leaves, the stepped and everted rim cut with a band of polished circlets, set on an applied trailed foot, the domed lid decorated with a garland of fruit, between bands of circlets and stiff leaves, surmounted by a berried leaf knop, 22.5cm high (crizzled and cracked) (2)  Estimate: £3,000 - 5,000 - Unsold

Provenance: With Heide Hübner, Würzburg, 1984

For comparative examples see that sold at Sotheby's, 4 October 1976, lot 168, a beaker with six naked putti in various postures playing with fruiting vine, 13.4cm, circa 1700; a beaker in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has similar dancing putti which are believed to derive from lead models prepared before 1677 for the Potsdam Glasshouse by Gottfried Leygebe, described asEisenschneider (literally iron-cutter) to the Great Elector. See R.Schmidt Brandenbürgische Gläser (1914), p.69, fig.19 and pl.7B. See also W.B.Honey, Glass. A Handbook (1946), p.85, pl.45A. See also Edward Dillon, Glass (1907), pl.XLII illustrating an identical subject.

Bonhams. 2 May 2013 10:30 BST London, New Bond Street. The Muhleib Collection of European Glass