Hellenistic Silver Cup with Gilded Floral Decoration

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Hellenistic Silver Cup with Gilded Floral Decoration

Place of OriginReportedly from modern-day Turkey

Date200-100 BCE

DimensionsH: 3 in. (7.6 cm); Diam (mouth): 5 in. (12.7 cm); Weight: 225.3 grams

MediumSilver, with gilding.

ClassificationMetalwork

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1975.11

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

Collections

Decorative Arts

Published References"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 19, nos. 2, 3, 1976, p. 49.

Oliver, Andrew. Silver for the Gods 800 Years of Greek and Roman Silver, Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art, 1977, pp. 78-79, no. 43.

"Silver for the Gods," Goldsmiths Journal, vol. 3, no. 6, Dec. 1977, p. 9, repr.

Pfrommer, Michael. Studien zu alexandrinischer und großgriechischer Toreutik frühhellenistischer Zeit, Berlin: Mann, 1987, p. 265, no. KBk 128, pl. 58a.

Vickers, Michael, et. al, From silver to ceramics, Oxford, 1986, pl. 26.

Truman, Charles, ed., Sotheby's concise encyclopedia of silver, London, 1993, p. 23, repr. (col.). Pfrommer, Michael. Metalwork from the Hellenized East : catalogue of the collections, Malibu, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1993, p. 50, n. 570.

John Boardman, The Oxford History of Classical Art, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993/2001, p. 185, fig. 180.

Gill, David W. J., “Inscribed Silver Plate from Tomb II at Vergina: Chronological Implications,” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, vol. 77, no. 2, 2008, pp. 337.

Carter, Martha, Arts of the Hellenized East: Precious Metalwork and Gems of the Pre-Islamic Era, London, Thames & Hudson, 2015, p. 109.

Bilde, Pia Guldager. Mouldmade Bowls of the Black Sea Region and Beyond: From Prestige Object to an Article of Mass Consumption, Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2024, pp. 29, 32.

Exhibition HistoryChicago, Art Institute, The search for Alexander, 1981, no. S-10, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art; Kansas City, Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Silver for the Gods, 1977-1978, no. 43, p. 78, 79, repr.

The Universtiy Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. 1995.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Grunwald, Christiane, "Akademisches Kunstmuseum der Universität Bonn, Tätigkeitsbericht für die Zeit vom 1.1.1967 - 31.12.1976," Bonner Jahrbücher, 1977, p. 633, fig. 8.Label TextThe Hellenistic period is the time between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE and the death of Cleopatra in 30 BCE. Alexander’s conquests had brought Greeks into contact with the wealth and luxurious tastes of the former Persian Empire. This cup shows Persian influences. Its basic shape was raised, or cold-hammered, from a blank of silver. The elaborate decoration of curling leaves would have been cast separately, then soldered on to the bottom of the cup. The gilding would have been applied at the end of the process.