Design Model of a Silver and Gold Repousse Flask

Printed page with a Model Ornaments of a 16th-century design for a gilded silver repousse flask. The body of the flask is round, with a border decorated with scrolling, stylized dolphins, whose tails are linked by stylized acanthus leaves, and their heads are separated by grotesques. Inside this border is a military scene that illustrates several soldiers, fully dressed with 16th-century armory, decorated with frotesques and scrolling motifs, wearing helmets in their heads, and holding different types of arms. Behind them are canyons pointing to a village tower, seen behind them, where some of the soldiers are seen attacking the village defense. The base and neck of the bottle are both decorated with scrolling motifs and stylized acanthus leaves. The base presents a mermaid in the center, holding a bowl with C-scrolls from which a ram eats, and the neck has two small angels sittong on the sides. In the union between the neck of the flask and the round body is a coat of arms with semi-abstract scrolling motif and two intersecting swords. Two stylized turtles stand above the round body of the flask, to the sides of the neck, their heads facing those of scrolling, stylized dolphins, whose tails are linked to other dolphins, making the handle of the flask. According to the inscription, the original flask after which the print was made is housed at the "Grünen Gewölbe" (Green Cabinet) in Dresden, and was made in Augsburg towards the end of the 16th century.