Nautilus Cup (1607): Art, History and Details

Nautilus Cup (1607) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Cornelis Jansz van der Burch (Dutch, active in Delft, d. 1615).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Nautilus shells were brought to the Netherlands from Indonesia. Skilled Dutch silversmiths mounted them in silver, creating luxurious vessels that were sought after by wealthy collectors. Early Dutch nautilus cups are mainly associated with the city of Delft, although only a few other examples made in Delft are known from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. They feature the dramatic motif of a sea monster’s head.

Object facts

• Title: Nautilus Cup
• Date: 1607
• Creator attribution: Cornelis Jansz van der Burch (Dutch, active in Delft, d. 1615)
• Culture: Netherlands, Holland, Delft
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: Silver-gilt, nautilus shell
• Dimensions: Overall: 33.3 x 10.6 x 20.1 cm (13 1/8 x 4 3/16 x 7 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 2023.154

A detail from the museum

The nautilus is a marine mollusk that swims by expelling water from its shell using jet propulsion.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Kellen, D. van der, Nederlands-oudheden: verzameling van afbeeldingen der voor wetenschap, kunst en nijverheid meest belangrijke voorwerpen uit vroegere tijden ... The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1861. Mentioned: p. 23, illustrated: pl. LI
• Frégnac C., and Andrews, W., The Great Houses of Paris. New York: Vendome Press: Distributed by Viking Press, 1979. Illustrated: p. 80
• Biesboer, P., Delfts zilver: Delftse Goud- en Zilversmeden en hun Merken, 1536-1807. Zwolle: Waanders Uitgevers, 2020. Mentioned: p. 373

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.