Palm Cup

Place of OriginLikely Germany, reportedly from Bingen

Date6th - 7th century CE

DimensionsH: 2 3/4 in. (7 cm); Diam: 4 3/8 in. (11 cm)

MediumBlown and tooled green glass

ClassificationGlass

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

Object number

1977.11

Not on View

DescriptionA translucent, grayish-green glass drinking cup, free-blown with a wide, flaring mouth and a convex, unstable bottom. The rim is folded outward, downward, and inward to create a durable collar. The glass fabric contains small bubbles (seeds), black specks, and "blowing spirals." The vessel cannot stand upright on its own.

Label TextThis cup was designed to tip over. Known as a "palm cup" or Sturzbecher (spill cup), its rounded bottom meant it could not be set down until it was empty or placed upside down on a table. In the feasting halls of the Franks—the Germanic tribes who settled in the Rhineland after the collapse of Rome—such vessels encouraged communal drinking rituals and rapid consumption.

This object belongs to a group of glass vessels and ornaments reportedly found in a single Frankish grave at Bingen, a settlement along the Rhine west of Mainz. The group includes two palm cups (1977.11, 1983.86), a gaming piece (1981.56), and two beads (1977.20, 1981.55). In the sixth and seventh centuries this region formed part of the Merovingian kingdoms, whose elite communities buried their dead with ornaments and vessels that marked identity, status, and regional taste.

Published ReferencesGrose, David, "Ancient Glass," Toledo Museum of Art News, vol. 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 89, repr. fig. 32.

"Recent important acquisitions," Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 20, 1978, repr. p. 121.

Effros, Bonnie, "Art of the 'Dark Ages': Showing Merovingian Artifacts in North American Public and Private Collections," Journal of the History of Collections, vol. 17, no. 1, 2005, p. 110, no. 100.

Comparative ReferencesSee also D. B. Harden; "Ancient Glass II: Post-Roman," Archaeological Journal; CXXV, 1968; pp. 89-92. cf. D. B. Harden; "Glass Vessels in Britain and Ireland, AD 400-1000," in Dark Age Studies Presented to E. T. Leeds; London, 1956; p. 138, fig. 25, pp. 142 ff. cf. M. Vanderhoeven; Venes romains tardifs et Mérovingiens du Musée Curtius; Liege, 1958; esp. pp. 65 ff.