This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions), and as such we offer a high-resolution image of it. See our image rights statement.

 

See more objects with the tag ornament, putti, flowers, drinking, cup, fruit, grotesques, vegetal, acanthus, Germany, masks, scrollwork, silverwork, punch engraving.

See more objects with the color grey darkolivegreen rosybrown or see all the colors for this object.

Object Timeline

1942

  • We acquired this object.

2006

2016

2025

  • You found it!

Print, Plate from 12 Stick Zum Verzaighnen Stechen Ver Fertigt (Set of Twelve Designs for Engraved Vessels)

This is a Print. It was print maker: Bernhard Zan. It is dated 1580 and we acquired it in 1942. Its medium is punch engraving, pen and black ink, graphite on cream laid paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Zan apprenticed as a goldsmith, and his training may have contributed to this relatively restrained series of designs for metalwork cups, which feature layered strapwork as a defining decorative feature, coupled with fruit, plants, and inventive grotesque heads. Zan may have been the first engraver to use the technique of punch-engraving to produce prints.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane.

Our curators have highlighted 11 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

Its dimensions are

29.5 × 18.4 cm (11 5/8 × 7 1/4 in.) Platemark: 21.4 x 13.9 cm (8 7/16 x 5 1/2 in.)

It has the following markings

Watermark: bear with collar and hanging tongue (horizontal)

It is inscribed

Inscribed in black ink, center upper margin: 120; in graphite, center lower margin: 8

Cite this object as

Print, Plate from 12 Stick Zum Verzaighnen Stechen Ver Fertigt (Set of Twelve Designs for Engraved Vessels); Print Maker: Bernhard Zan (Germany, active ca. 1580); Germany; punch engraving, pen and black ink, graphite on cream laid paper; 29.5 × 18.4 cm (11 5/8 × 7 1/4 in.) Platemark: 21.4 x 13.9 cm (8 7/16 x 5 1/2 in.); Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane; 1942-36-15

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Fragile Beasts.

This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18565543/ |title=Print, Plate from 12 Stick Zum Verzaighnen Stechen Ver Fertigt (Set of Twelve Designs for Engraved Vessels) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=7 July 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>