Imperial Eagle beaker

An imperial eagle or eagle tankard glass was a favorite of 16 Roman to the late 18th century in the Sacred Realm drinking vessel made ​​of glass, which carries a double-headed imperial eagle as an ornament, usually in the form of a Quaternionenadlers. Such tankards were the decisive medium for the representation of the most popular explanatory model for the structure of the Empire, the Quaternionentheorie in the presentation by Hans Burgkmair.

The imperial eagle tankard showed the solidarity of the owner with the Reich and were very popular because of their decorative effect and the bright colors. However, due to their large capacity, these drinking vessels were estimated. A similar popular were the Elector tankard. On these, the representations of the emperor and the electors represented as its most important members of the kingdom.

Imperial eagle tankard have survived in large numbers and are exhibited in museums around the world. At auction well conserved reach a sales price of up to several thousand euros.

Appearance

Imperial eagle tankard usually had a capacity of three to four liters and were made ​​of white or different colored glass. The drum-shaped or cylindrical imperial eagle tankard have a height of 20 to 32 cm and a diameter of 10 to 15 cm. Such tankards were occasionally made ​​with a lid and with one foot of tin or brass. The decoration was painted in enamel technique on the glass. This technique had come from Tyrol Venice to Germany. This powdered glass was added to the stains. After painting the surface of the glass was heated again, so that the ink application to the surface aufschmolz. This technology guarantees long durability of the paint and the bright colors, have been achieved.

Initially, the eagle was represented by a cross or an image of the crucified Jesus on the chest. The cross symbolized the Christian foundation of the empire, the imperial eagle protects the church. Since the beginning of the 17th century the Crucified was generally replaced by the representation of the orb.

On the wings of a total of 56 arms of the Elector, and coat of arms of imperial estates and imperial cities, in the form of quaternions were represented as symbolic carrier of the Imperial Constitution. The electoral arms and the Pope's coat of arms are in the first row and in close proximity to the heads of the eagle. Among twelve times four per coat of arms are in strip form shown. Representations of the imperial eagle, together with the Emperor and the Elector there from the time of Leopold I from the late 17th century. The double-headed eagle, symbolizing the kingdom as a whole is crowned and nimbiert as a sign of the holiness of the empire.

On the back of the tankard there are often dedications, an explanation of the representation, the year of manufacture and the name of the glassmaker. We read, for example on a copy of 1669, now preserved in the Museum District Grimsby:

Since the end of the Thirty Years' War to be found toasts and blessings pointed out that the imperial eagle tankard were served to welcome and were used at meetings of the guilds, which is also indicated the large capacity.

History and Significance

In the 16th and 17th century representations of the emperor, the electors and the imperial eagle were very popular. Frequently served illustrations on wood and copper engravings of famous contemporary artists as a template for the decoration of everyday life and everyday objects. Besides the imperial eagle tankard there was dispensing vessels of stoneware, plates of tin and stove tiles with these designs.

As the oldest copy is considered a tankard of 1571, which is now on display in the British Museum in London. One of the five oldest tankard of 1572 is in the Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart. Until the mid- 18th century, the imperial eagle tankard produced almost unchanged. Then, the production seems to come to an end. Such tankards were made ​​mainly in Bohemia, Saxony, Thuringia, Hesse and in the Fichtelgebirge. The importance of the imperial eagle tankard for glass crafts in these regions you guessed by the fact that the glassmakers ' guild of the Bohemian Kreibitz 1669 called as a masterpiece of the production of a Reichsadlerhumpens in one and a half days.

The imperial eagle gave the desired image from the permanent unity of the Holy Roman Empire decorative shape and show the emotional attachment of wide circles of the Reich. Here, the imperial eagle was usually depicted in the form of a Quaternionenadlers that connected the theory of quaternions, with one of the most important symbols of the empire. Since the structure and the structure of the Empire was already in need of explanation for his contemporaries, it was with the quaternions a model that should illustrate the structure of the Reich. It was originated in the 14th century and remained popular until the end of the empire. This fictitious groups of four of the states were formed, the quaternions, whose members had a common feature. So there was the group of secular electors, the Marquises and so on. However, this did often misleading and inaccurate compilations in order to achieve the number four, which the success of the model but did not spoil.

The early modern drinking culture in which the social self- toasting was very significant, meant that the tankard was associated with the imperial eagle, to express the solidarity of the owner with the Reich. This attachment to the Empire and its members was particularly pronounced in the " commons man" and the smaller estates of the empire, so the imperial eagle tankard were primarily found in circles of the lower nobility and the bourgeoisie, as the patricians and the plebeians of the cities. Most detectable owners were craftsmen and corporations. In princely possession, there are only a few copies.

The term Roman Empire was virtually a synonym for a the imperial eagle tankard. To pass the melancholy, as one reads in the Richard Brathwaite (1588-1673) in 1616 under the pseudonym " Blasius Multibibus " (Latin Vielsauf ) published work disputatio inauguralis theoretico - practica jus potandi ... that in the same year without the author's name appeared in a German translation with the title jus Potandi or Zechrecht:

The historian Sven Lüken believed that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe thought of a imperial eagle tankard, if he can sing the revelers in Auerbach's cellar:

End of the 19th century imperial eagle tankard were often forged.