Gold ruby glass, silver; cased, mold-blown, assembled, gilded silver mount. Bowl has wide foot and shallow body with ribbed exterior. Has metal rings around foot and rim with two decorative handles at sides. Rounded cover has flared lip and vertical ribbing rising to a metal handle in the shape of a man with raised arms.

Richly colored translucent gold ruby glass was first produced by Johann Kunckel in Dresden between 1678 and 1683. The recipe for making this glass could not be kept secret for long, and glasshouses in Brandenburg, Bavaria, and Bohemia began to create notable examples. In Düsseldorf, where the mount for this covered bowl was fashioned, only one artisan—Simon de Tourney—is documented as making colored glass in 1692. However, neither the colors nor the types of objects he crafted are recorded, so it is impossible to say whether the bowl was made in Düsseldorf or in one of the better-known centers of ruby glass production. The value of the bowl is enhanced by its gilded silver decoration. The convex lid is surmounted by a finial in the shape of a shield bearer. The lance he once held in his left hand is now missing, as is the shield he originally held in his right hand. Such attributes were regularly personalized to indicate a patron’s origin. Neither the glass nor the mount can be precisely dated, but the bowl was probably made around the turn of the 18th century. The silversmith Johannes Brauman II (active about 1665– 1707), whose mark appears on the mount, joined the city council of Düsseldorf in 1707. At that time, ruby glasses were mounted almost exclusively in gilded silver, and very few of them were decorated in the Rhineland. Most were ornamented in Augsburg and Nuremberg, which were major centers of gold and silversmithing. For more on the production of ruby glass, see Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, Rubinglas des ausgehenden 17. und des 18. Jahrhunderts, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2001.