This recently acquired goblet, together with several undated examples from the same period, all relate to the Treaty of Münster of 1648, part of the wider Peace of Westphalia that gave recognition to the de facto division of The Netherlands by granting independence to the Seven Provinces of the Dutch Republic in the north.
Goblet. Austria, about 1550-1599, engraved 1652. 2014.3.4.
Among the Catholic population, this object may be interpreted as exhibiting a hankering for the political order that existed under the Hapsburg dynasty. The goblet, created in Austria between 1550 and 1599, is engraved with the arms of the Hapsburg Philip IV of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, and two other unidentified coats of arms. The upper part of the bowl depicts the arms of the Seventeen United Dutch Provinces, symbolizing either friendship or political attachment.
-Audrey Whitty, Curator of European and Asian Glass
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