Shop
Museum
Overview
Exhibitions
Collections
Education
Publications
Clark Connects
Art on the Grounds
Study Center
Image Not Available
Zoom
Download
JPEG images are suitable for most presentation uses. TIFF images are suitable for publication purposes. When using images, please reproduce caption and credit information. For details or further information, click here.
If the file does not immediately download, it should open in a new tab. Once opened, right–click the image to save.
Audio
Maker Unknown
Mazer
c. 1500–30
A mazer is a shallow drinking bowl, usually made from maple wood. The wood's fine grain made it possible for bowls of this kind to go from wet to dry repeatedly without warping or cracking. Mazers were used widely at meals and in religious ceremonies during the Middle Ages. While the bowls were usually plain, the rim was sometimes decorated with a band of silver and an engraved medallion inserted in the center.
Image Caption
Maker Unknown, Mazer, c. 1500–30, maple with silver-gilt mounts. Clark Art Institute, 1955.419
Medium
maple with silver-gilt mounts
Dimensions
2 7/16 x 6 x 6 in. (6.2 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm)
Base diameter: 3 in. (7.6 cm)
Weight: 7.9 oz (223.9 g)
Object Number
1955.419
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
Gardner, Starkie John. Old Silver-Work, Chiefly English, from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries Exhibited in 1902 at St. James's Court. Exhibition catalogue. London: B. T. Batsford, 1903. Wace, A. J. B. Illustrated Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of English Decorative Art. Exhibition catalogue. London, 1929. Carter, A. C. R. The Year's Art, 1935. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1935. Griffith, Griffith. Treasure under Glass: Examples of the Arts and Crafts from the British Isles. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Co., 1963. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. Glanville, Philippa. Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England: A Social History and Catalogue of the National Collection, 14801660. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1990. Wees, Beth Carver. "English Silver in an American Museum: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute." Silver Society Journal 4 (Autumn 1993):115–23. Wees, Beth Carver. English, Irish, and Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997. Wees, Beth Carver. "Silver in the Clark Art Institute." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 536–45.
Provenance
Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael, Bart., sale Christie's, London, 12 May 1902, lot 197; bought Crichton Brothers, London; Henry Harris, Esq., sale Christies, London, 13 June 1934, lot 94; bought Crichton Brothers, London; Sir John Noble, Bart.; by descent to John Noble, Esq., sale Christies, London, 12 December 1951, lot 142; bought Crichton Brothers, London; sold to Robert Sterling Clark, 23 July 1952.