Research Notes:
November 2019

Probably used for beer or cider, the tankard rests on a molded foot and features an applied handle, a hinged lid, and a bulbous finial at the junction of the two. Its front is emblazoned with a pretzel bracketed by three loaves of bread and two lions rampant (standing in profile, with claws unsheathed) and topped with a jeweled crown. This design—the emblem of the bakers’ guild—is accompanied by two cheery inscriptions, in German, that announce the hopes of both patron and pewterer. The inscription surrounding the pretzel emblem reads: “May God in Heaven bless the field / Bake big bread so that we may make a little money.”² The one on the lid, encircled by a wreath of grain, declares: “Long live a well-crafted tankard, AD 1792.”³ Perhaps Dr. Barnes saw the tankard echoed in other works in the ensemble—its shape in the upright posture of Amedeo Modigliani’s Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse (BF180) or the pretzel in the writhing trees of Chaim Soutine’s Group of Trees (BF331).

According to legend, the bakers’ emblem goes back to a Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, when a group of bakers working overnight to prepare the morning’s bread discovered some Turks digging tunnels and planting mines.⁴ The bakers rushed to alert the city commandant, thereby thwarting the attack. The Austrian emperor gratefully awarded this crest to the bakers’ guild to honor the heroic bakers who saved Vienna from certain disaster. But this origin story is unlikely, as the crest’s key elements—crowned pretzels and loaves flanked by lions rampant—had been used on objects prior to 1683.⁵ Regardless, throughout the early modern period, bakers’ guilds persistently adorned their objects and buildings with the design on the Barnes tankard.⁶ The emblem has also been used on props for parades, shop signs, and even stained glass windows, and embraced by corporations as a symbol of piety and prosperity. The Snyder’s of Hanover pretzel company has perpetuated the motif into the present.

Surprisingly, the Barnes tankard seems to have received its engraving some 26 years after the vessel itself was made. Though the inscription reads 1792, its interior is stamped with the year 1766. Two figures adorn the interior, a man with a gun and an angel holding a scale and sword, both labeled E. M.—presumably the mark of the pewterer, who associated his initials and weaponry with the Archangel Michael (Erzengel Michael in German). Makers’ marks and further ornament were common inside German tankards.⁷

The Barnes tankard was probably made for private use, given its height (12.75 inches) relative to the monumental ones (usually 18–20 inches) designed for drinking rituals in guild ceremonies. These affairs were evidently quite convivial: when filled, the tankards were too heavy to be passed around and so were known as Schliefkannen (“vessels that have to be dragged”).⁸ One ornate Schliefkanne, c. 1560, belonging to a butchers’ guild in Zittau, Germany, stands over 20 inches tall and weighs nearly 30 pounds empty.⁹ Despite the size of the Barnes tankard, the Wir (“we”) in the 1792 inscription may suggest its use or reuse within a guild house.

Whichever festivities the tankard might have animated during its life as a drinking vessel, the oath—“Long live a well-crafted tankard”—on its lid warrants a consideration of the vessel’s making to better understand its historical meaning as well as its current place within a Barnes ensemble. The object is made of pewter, an alloy of metals consisting primarily of tin with small amounts of lead, copper, or antimony added for durability.¹⁰ The Worshipful Company of Pewterers in London, the official pewter guild, issued ordinances in 1348; they reveal that this metal was highly regulated and required professionals “expert and cunning in the craft.”¹¹

Pewterers would fashion their objects by casting the molten metal in a mold (a suitable method as pewter has a low melting point), by hammering the metal in plate form, or by turning it on a lathe (a common way to form tankards).¹² Ornament on pewter objects often included engraving (as the metal is relatively soft), wriggle work (the wavy outlines of flora and fauna of the tankard), repoussé in the forms of bosses or shields, and pointille, among other options.¹³

In use since Egyptian and Roman antiquity, pewter objects were popular in sacred and secular settings up to the early 19th century.¹⁴ The earliest known reference to pewter for use in the Catholic liturgy was recorded at the Council of Reims in 803. By the late 12th century, pewter chalices and Communion plates were common.¹⁵ A few centuries later, the Parisian housewife’s guidebook Le Ménagier de Paris (1393) signaled that pewter cups and plates were popular among the middle and upper middle classes.¹⁶ At this same time, guilds began to assert their status and wealth by commissioning ceremonial pewter drinking vessels.¹⁷ Other pewter objects from the late Middle Ages were flagons, candlesticks, coffeepots, snuffboxes, processional staves, pilgrim badges, and a large range of tableware. Pewter remained common until glass and porcelain became more popular in the early 1800s—around the time that many guilds dissolved as well.¹⁸

Happily for the pretzel tankard, its material and ornament ultimately suited the identity of another institution: the Barnes Foundation. Dr. Barnes described his appreciation of “the so-called useful arts” and their connection to his educational mission in a 1948 letter:¹⁹

Long live a well-made tankard!