MARK OF B. NERESHEIMER & SÖHNE, HANAU, CIRCA 1890

This flagon is based on the Goslar Flagon, one of the most famous pieces of German late medieval silver and the pride of the Town Museum of Goslar, a former silver-mining town in lower Saxony. It was well known and published in the 19th century, appealing to both historicist taste as well as the rising German nationalistic movement. The original Goslar Flagon includes a depiction of St. George within the Gothic canopy of the cover, and has a finial in the form of a bird perched on an orb instead of the pelican in its piety and St. Christopher finial on the present lot. This reproduction, though, is even larger than the original, and shows the desire of Hanau smiths to improve upon the historical pieces they copied. For more on the Goslar Flagon, see C. Hernmarck, The Art of the European Silversmith, New York, 1977, p. 91, plate 248, and H. Kohlhaussen, Nurnberger Goldschmiedekunst des Mittelalters und der Durerzeit 1240 bis 1540, Berlin, 1968, p. 304-307.