The Peddler Goblet (1800s): Art, History and Details

The Peddler Goblet (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In the decoration of this goblet, the peddler, fast asleep under a tree, is robbed by monkeys. The same subject appears on the famous "Monkey Cup" in The Cloisters of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was obviously appealing because peddlers were traditionally believed to have many of the same vices as monkeys. Another part of the decoration includes a scene of Venus emerging from the sea, and the Three Graces.

Object facts

• Title: The Peddler Goblet
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Italy, Venice (Murano), 19th century
• Type: Glass
• Technique: green and blue glass, enameled and gilded
• Dimensions: Diameter of mouth: 21.5 x 11.4 cm (8 7/16 x 4 1/2 in.); Diameter of base: 12 cm (4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1953.364

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foote, Helen S. “A Venetian Glass Goblet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 41, no. 1 (January 1954): 14–19.
• Francis, Henry Sayles. Venetian Tradition: Catalogue of the Exhibition. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.