DescriptionOne of the finest surviving examples of medieval enamel created for a princely table, this beaker illustrates a popular legend that remarks on the folly of man. A peddler is robbed by a band of apes as he sleeps. The peddler, seen just above the base, fails to stir even as the apes strip away his clothes. Other apes, having taken his goods, cavort in the branches overhead. The beaker originally had a cover. The unusual grisaille (shades of gray) enamel technique is found on several other surviving objects, all of which have been associated with the courts of the dukes of Burgundy.

ProvenancePiero di Medici, Florence, Italy (in 1464?); Earls of Arundel, England (1585-1889?); Karl Thewalt, Cologne, Germany (1900-1903); [Jacques Seligmann, Paris and New York (purchased 1903)]; J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York (by 1908 - sold perhaps 1928 through [Duveen Brothers, Paris, London, and New York]); [Julius Böhler Kunsthandlung, Munich (1928)]; Alfred Rütschi, Zurich (before 1929); Rütschi Family by descent (until 1952); [Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York (1952)]