Primary Description:
Colorless soda-lime glass; blown, applied, engraved. The funnel-shaped bowl with rounded base is set on a hollow inverted baluster knop flanked by mereses and a plain section, above a wide folded conical foot. The bowl is diamond-point engraved with a pregnant woman holding a wineglass and the calligraphic inscription Hansie in de Kelder [Little Hans in the Cellar].
Such goblets were used to toast the birth of a (male) child. The goblet is diamond-point engraved in the style of Willem Mooleyser (about 1640-1700). An almost identical but slightly larger goblet was formerly in the Ritman collection: The Joseph R. Ritman Collection of 16th and 17th century Dutch glass. Sotheby's London, 14 November, 1995, p. 52, lot 57. Another example with a more elongated baluster is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Ritsema vol. II, 1995, p. 73, no. 42. Ritsema attributes the glass firmly to Mooleyser. A third glass is in the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, formerly K. H. Heine Collection: Sabine Baumgärtner, Edles altes Glas. Die Sammlung Heinrich Heine, Karlsruhe: Corona Verlag, 1977, no. 101. Here, an expectant mother holding a flower is engraved above a floral spray with bird. The pregnant woman holds a wineglass as if offering a toast to "Hansie in de Kelder" (Little Hans in the cellar).