The earliest of these three is the Berkemeier, made in Nijmegen around 1635 by Johan Hermensz Gramey. The slightly conical cup has a finely engraved double band along the upper rim, with leafy tendrils and flowers in between. The straight lower half of the cup, separated from the upper half by a zig-zag border, is decorated with chased shell motifs on a matt background. The cup rests on a moulded foot.

Berkemei

A berkemei is a birch branch used to make a wooden cup. The glass berkemeier or berkemeyer is derived from this shape and was made from green forest glass in Germany as early as the 15th century. The knobs on the stem of the cup were derived from the gnarled lateral branches of the tree and provided a better grip on the glass. This was not an unnecessary luxury as people often ate with their hands and the glass could easily slip from greasy fingers. From the 16th century onwards, this model was also made in silver, following the example of those made of glass. As these were many times more expensive, they allowed their owners to show their social status.

Lotteries

Silver berkemeiers also feature on lottery prints from the 16th and 17th centuries. In addition to collections, lotteries were a popular way of raising money. The first official lottery in the Netherlands was organised by the city of Utrecht in 1444 to cover the city’s deficits. This example was soon followed by private initiatives to raise money ‘for the benefit of the needy’, such as for the victims of natural disasters like floods and fires, but also for other charitable purposes. To advertise lotteries, notices showing the main prizes were printed and hung up in places where they would attract the attention of a large number of people, encouraging them to purchase a ticket. These prizes were mainly silver objects or coins.

Dolhuis

This detail of a lottery print from 1592 shows the prizes that could be won in a lottery for the expansion of the Amsterdam Dolhuis, or lunatic asylum, on the Kloveniersburgwal. There were a large number of costly prizes to be won, ranging from silver goblets, tazzas, spoons and even sacks of silver coins. It also lists no less than forty-one berkemeiers, many times more than the number of Dutch silver examples we know of today. This is the only known example made in Nijmegen.

Amsterdam Beaker

The 1656 Amsterdam beaker, made by Ludolf Harmen Drooghstraedt, is slightly conical in shape, with a smooth drinking rim and a profiled band underneath. The sides are decorated with four distinct flowers on stems with leaves. The base is incised with vertical decoration and a flat stand ring. The decoration on this Amsterdam cup is a fine example of the floral style. The emerging interest in flowers and in tulips in particular in the late 16th century, had a great impact in the Netherlands, eventually leading to the ‘tulip mania’ between 1634 and 1637. Flowers were also favoured in art. In addition to an infinite number of floral still lifes, flowers were used to decorate silver objects from the mid-17th century onwards. This beaker by Ludolf Harmen Drooghstraed is a wonderful example.

From London to Moscow

The basic shape of this beaker, with a narrowed foot rim, appeared in London at the end of the 16th century. Ludolf Harmen Drooghstraed adapted it to Dutch taste by adding four embossed flowers on a stem, with leaves attached to the sides. A few years later, another Amsterdam silversmith, Roelof van Emden de Vries, made a series of beakers in this style. They were taken to Russia by representatives of the Dutch Republic as diplomatic gifts and Russian inscriptions were added to them there on the spot. Eleven of these cups are now part of the collection of the State Historical and Cultural Museum of the Kremlin in Moscow. Only a few examples, including this one, are known in the Netherlands, of which this is the earliest.

Groninger Beaker

The Groningen beaker from 1674-75 was chased entirely from one piece of silver without a separate stand ring. The side of the beaker is engraved with two empty escutcheons topped by a helmet flanked by a beautiful array of ostrich feathers and leaf volutes. These shields could be filled in if the owner had a family crest. The cup stands on three spherical feet. Arent Hamminck’s Groningen beaker is very subdued in form, the only decoration being the three ball feet. The German influence is clearly visible in this model, where the shape was often used in Nuremberg and Augsburg. This type was also produced in Scandinavia until the 18th century. Hamminck made the cup entirely in the Dutch restrained style, with the sides entirely smooth. This model is rare in the Netherlands; in fact, this is the only known example from Groningen.

Wine

All three of these beakers were used for drinking wine at home. The Netherlands never had a significant wine production and had to rely on imports. In the 17th century most of the wine came from France and Germany, so wine was expensive and therefore mainly available to the upper classes. It is not surprising that expensive drinking vessels were made for it. Drinking wine was a way of flaunting one’s social status.

Staple Right

Middelburg, which from 1406 had a stapelrecht for wines from France and the Mediterranean, and Dordrecht, which had the same right for wines from Germany, remained the most important wine markets until well into the 16th century. The staple right meant that all imported goods unloaded at a port had to be stored and offered for sale there before they could be transported onwards. However, the importance of this right began to decline significantly for these cities in the second half of the 16th century, due to the rise of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which became important trading centres and remained the main wine markets until the late 17th century.

3.5 Liters Of Wine Per Day

Beer was a typically popular drink, drunk by all classes of the population. This was not the case for wine; the number of those who drank wine was much smaller. Only the nobility, the clergy and the upper middle classes drank wine every day. A comparison between the daily earnings of various craftsmen and the price of wine showed that anyone who was paid less than a master mason — which was the vast majority — could only drink wine on rare occasions. There was also a big difference in price between German and French wines. German Rhine wines were considerably more expensive than French wines. It has also been calculated that the wine consumption of the regular clergy ranged from 650 to almost 1,300 litres per person per year—this last figure is particularly impressive. As early as the 14th century, the abbot of St Peter’s in Ghent reserved around 3.5 litres of wine a day for himself. Monks and novices were more abstemious, with an average of 2.7 litres per person per day. Their contemporaries’ criticism of the disordered life of the clerics is understandable.

The Silversmiths

The maker of the Berkemeier, Johan Hermensz Gramey, was born in Arnhem around 1600, the son of the Arnhem goldsmith Herman Jansz and his wife Ursula Schaeck. He became a citizen of Nijmegen on 21 February 1627 and a few weeks later married Lijsbeth Alberts, also from Arnhem. It was not until around 1660 that he added Gramey to his surname. Two of his sons, Albert Hermans and Herman Hermens (Jansen) Gramey, and his grandson Aelbert Gramey, were also silversmiths. Johan died in Nijmegen, where he was buried on 21 April 1667.8 A street in the silversmiths’ district of the city is named after him. The 1983 catalogue Nijmeegs zilver lists a number of Gramey’s pieces, all made between 1638 and 1665. Some of them, including a windmill cup and a box, are in the collection of the Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen.

The Amsterdam beaker was made by Ludolf Harmen Drooghstraedt, also known as Ludolf Drogestadt. He was born in Groningen around 1635 and was the son of Harmen Drooghstraedt. On 19 August 1657 he married Grietje Gerrits in Sloterdijk. He was registered as a silversmith before 4 August 1657. It is not known exactly when Ludolf died. His widow married the plumber Jan Janssen on 20 December 1670, which suggests that Ludolf died before 1670. A few pieces by Drooghstraedt are known, including an oval box in the Rijksmuseum’s collection, which, like this cup, has boldly embossed floral decorations all round it.

Finally, the Groningen beaker was made by Arent Hamminck van Nijenhuis. He was born in the city in 1660. Both his parents, Willem Hamminck and Catrijna Munninghe, were witnesses to his marriage to Geesjen or Gesien Garbrants in 1682. Ten years after their marriage he died on 28 June 1692.

Marks

All three beakers are hallmarked on the underside. The Nijmegen Berkemeier has the maker’s mark IHG conjoined for Johan Hermensz Gramey.

The Amsterdam beaker is marked with the city assay mark of Amsterdam, the date letter D for 1656 and the maker’s mark LD conjoined for Ludolf Drooghstraedt.

The Groninger beaker is marked with the city assay mark of Groningen, the 3rd alphabet with date letter W for 1674-75, and the maker’s mark AH conjoined for Arent Hamminck.