Turban Snail Cup and Cover in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Turban Snail Cup and Cover
cup ca. 1600, stand before 1753

Stand by Johann Joachim Busch


Object Details

Title: Turban Snail Cup and Cover

Maker: Stand by Johann Joachim Busch

Date: cup ca. 1600, stand before 1753

Culture: Cup and cover: German (?); stand: German, Mecklenburg

Medium: Turban snail shell (turbo mamoratus), gilded silver and brass mounts

Dimensions: 14 3/16 × 6 5/8 × 5 1/2 in. (36 × 16.9 × 13.9 cm)

Classifications: Metalwork-Silver-Miniature, Natural Substances

Credit Line: Staatliche Schlösser, Gärten und Kunstsammlungen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin


The abundance of ornament worked into the silver mounts of this cup and cover reflects the Mannerist style popular around 1600. The artist has used the shell’s spiral to suggest the coiled body of a basilisk, a reptilian monster believed to kill merely by looking at or breathing on its prey. In 1752, Duke Christian Ludwig II of Mecklenburg commissioned court sculptor Johann Joachim Busch to elevate the heirloom on a fashionable stand that reflects the rococo taste for curving lines.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/759705