As the city had no glassworks of its own, undecorated pieces were imported, originally from Venice, later from the glass-producing areas of Bohemia and Thuringia.
The Nuremberg speciality was, above all, engraving and a fine, late 17th century example of this technique came up for sale at Dr Fischer (28% buyer’s premium) in Heilbronn on March 18.
It was a 15in (38cm) high covered goblet wheel-engraved with a boar-hunting scene. The bowl and cover were of green glass, while the foot, stem and finial which feature numerous knops and mereses, were made of clear glass.
A very similar goblet of this type belongs to the Corning Museum of Glass and its engraved decoration of a landscape and wanderers is attributed to Hermann Schwinger.
The Heilbronn goblet was equally well documented and the scene on the bowl of three hunters and their dogs cornering a wild boar in a wooded landscape is considered to be the work of Georg Friedrich Killinger, who was active between 1696 and 1726 and was one of the most renowned engravers of his time.
Several bidders were taken by the rarity and quality of the piece and pushed the price to €75,000 (£65,220), just shy of the upper estimate. The new owner is an unnamed German collector.
