Double mazer (the Luther goblet)

Description

The Museum owns two such drinking vessels of turned hardwood, which were widespread throughout Germany and Switzerland from the C13. Only around 50 of these cups, also called 'Doppelkopf' cups (double head cups), have survived. They were believed to have the power of extracting poison from any drink they contained. They include cups kept in remembrance of outstanding personalities, for example the Zwingli goblet in Zurich. This is another such example, according to the Latin inscription engraved on the bottom of the tiara shaped crown of the cover. It tells us that the vessel was presented to Luther by the Elector of Saxony John the Steadfast on 25 June 1530. On this memorable day the Augsburg Confession, the most important statement of the beliefs of the Lutheran Reformed Church, was presented to the Emperor during the imperial diet. After 1806, during the Napoleonic occupation of Wittenberg, the goblet came into the possession of the commander of an Alsatian regiment, Oberst de Graaf, and from his family it found its way to Basle by 1846.