tapering cylindrical and on spreading base, the rim engraved in the Renaissance style with fruiting foliage scrolls, the lower body later chased with winged figures within foliage scrolls and auricular ornament, the hinged cover engraved with initials and dated 1661 and with a further engraved band dated 1701, the scroll handle with baluster thumbpiece
20.3cm high, 20oz 10dwt, 637gr

The present tankard is very much in the style of Scandinavian tankards of the first half of the 17th century and perhaps mostly those from Norway. Such tankards are typically of a tapering form, with engraved decoration to the rim and mid-body. They also seem to share a domed cover with a further central dome which is typically variously engraved with coats-of-arms and dates or inscriptions. Three such examples are illustrated by Jorunn Fossberg, Norway’s Silver Heritage, 1000 Years of Norwegian Silver, Oslo, 1997, pp. 30-35. These examples include one marked for Rasmus of Skein, Oslo, 1611; one by Hans Rasmussen, Oslo, early 17th century and finally one by Lucas Steen, Bergen, circa 1630.

Two further examples, by Jost Albertszenn, of Bergen are published by Vanessa Brett, The Sotheby’s Directory of Silver 1600-1940, London, 1986, pp. 406-407. The first, fig. 1945 was sold Sotheby’s, London, 15 July 1976, lot 89 and the second, fig. 1956 circa 1625 by the same in 1962. Albertszenn’s silver mark, as published online as well as by Hans Johan Storesund, 100 Norse Solvskjeer, 1580-1780, 1993, nos. 52, 52 and 56 is an A which a diagonal bar within a shaped shield, not dissimilar to the mark on the present tankard.