Schnapps glass (one of twelve)

The form of this piece is unprecedented in the seventeenth century either in silver (the usual prototype for new glass forms) or in glass. It is close to the idea of cruet frames with central handle which were common in the eighteenth century. The signs of the zodiac are contained in swiftly sketched rococo cartouches, and there is a mixture of periods of costume worn by the various figures, including one in the garb of the sixteenth century and others from the seventeenth century. For all these reasons, it seems probable that the glass was decorated in the third quarter of the eighteenth century.

Credit: Munsey Fund, 1927