Embossed silver goblet with an inset Korn Jude medal
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 5.125 inches (13.018 cm) | Diameter: 2.875 inches (7.303 cm)
Creator(s)
- Christian Wermuth (Designer)
- Atelier Zim?erer (Manufacturer)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.
Archival History
The cup was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Embossed silver goblet, possibly used as a Kiddush cup, with an antisemitic Korn Jude medal from an earlier century embedded in the side. Compared to other Zim̄erer cups of this type, the scrollwork frame around the medal appears roughly modified. The seam where the medal joins the cup is crude and uneven, indicating the original medal may have been replaced with the Korn Jude piece post-manufacture. A Kiddush cup is a ceremonial vessel to hold wine for the blessing said at Shabbat and Jewish holiday meals. They are traditionally crafted out of gold or silver and commonly decorated with fruit or animals, such as the fish on the stem. Kiddush cups need to be kept in perfect condition. If one is malformed or damaged, it cannot be used. The makeshift addition of this antisemitic medal would have rendered the cup unfit for ceremonial use, which may have been the intent. Several iterations of the Korn Jude medal exist. This appears to be an example of the first iteration, likely engraved by Christian Wermuth (1661-1739) in approximately 1694, after a food shortage and grasshopper plague increased food prices in Germany. The medals show a Jewish grain dealer carrying a sack of grain, with a small devil spilling the grain to waste on the ground. The medal’s image blames Jewish greed for the spike in grain price and shows Jews working with the devil. The cup is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Silver goblet with a short-stemmed, stepped circular foot with raised bands. Bolted to the foot are 3 sinuous fish with big heads and puffy lips. Their tails have leaf-shaped fins that coil over their heads to support the cylindrical bowl, which has a rounded bottom with a pressed pattern of embossed lemon shaped spheres. The body has smooth sides rising to a flat rim with 3 rolled rings. A circular, silver medal is inserted into a hole cut through the front center. It has a worn, embossed design and German text on the front and the back. Depicted in right profile on the front, is a Jewish man in ragged clothing, walking with a staff in his right hand. He is bent forward because of the weight of the large sack over his left shoulder. Atop the sack is a small, horned creature spilling a stream of grain to the ground. Framing the medal is an embossed scrollwork garland, with a feline head at the bottom and a naked female bust on each top side. The back of the coin, visible in the bowl interior, has an embossed band with text. The bowl interior is smooth and discolored. There is a stamped silver mark.
Subjects
- Germany.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Antisemitism--Germany--Medals.
- Jews--Germany--History--19th century.
- Famines--Germany--History--Antisemitism.
- Jews in art.
- Kiddush cups--Germany--History--19th century.
- Antisemitism--Germany--History--19th century.
Genre
- Drinking vessels.
- Household Utensils
- Object