Autor: XxxxxYyyyyyy 120 Turban snail cup, known as the ‘Dragon Cup’ Mount: Nuremberg (?), c. 1600 Base: Johann Joachim Busch (1720–1802), 1752 Green Turban snail (Turbo marmoratus), silver and brass, gilding Inv. no. KH 887 The body of this impressive cup is formed by the asymmetrically coiled shell of a sea snail. Native to the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean, the Green Turban snail can reach a diameter of more than 20 centimetres. To achieve the splendid iridescent effect, the green outer surface of the shell was sanded down to reveal the lustrous shimmer of the mother-of-pearl layer beneath. This magnificent Kunstkammer piece was created in two stages separated by some 150 years. Around 1600, a goldsmith, perhaps in Nuremberg, transformed the rare natural shell into an ornate cup, using the shell’s spiral to suggest a coiled serpentine body. Archival documents from the 18th century refer to it as a ‘dragon’. The profiles and trims from this time are extremely finely engraved and decorated with relief friezes of fantastical creatures, masks and fruit. And then in 1752, Duke Christian Ludwig II commissioned court sculptor Johann Joachim Busch to fit the precious object with a sturdy gilt-brass foot in the then-fashionable Rococo style. _KAM
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