Featuring the arms of the Burgsdorf family, this square-based bottle is decorated with multicolored flowers and a blue-and-white dotted gold ornamental band around the shoulder. It likely belonged to the household of Konrad von Burgsdorf, who is named on the bottle. Burgsdorf was a childhood companion to Elector George William and a military commander for the Electorate of Brandenburg. The inscription lists Burgsdorf’s titles: “Conradt von Burckstorff Knight of the Order of Saint John and Commander of Lagow on the outskirts of Goldbeck, Machnow and Manschnow, hereditary Electorate Lord Chamberlain, Chief Chamberlain and Privy Councilor to the Newmarckian government, Supreme Commander of all the fortresses in the Electorate and Mark of Brandenburg, and General of the fortress Küstrin.”
Initially, Venetian glassmakers produced vessels with heraldic motifs for a Northern European market, even after enameled glass fell out of fashion in Venice. As craftspeople and their techniques migrated north, Bohemia and Silesia—part of present-day Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic—became known as centers of glasswork in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Additional glassmaking districts formed near Potsdam and Dresden, with specific sites determined by the availability of wood for fuel. The Marienwalde glasshouse, founded in 1607 in Brandenburg, may have produced this bottle.
Glass artists achieved bright multicolored decoration with enamel paints. They combined crushed clear glass, pigments, and a gum binder that allowed the mixture to be brushed onto a glass vessel, which was then fired to fuse the applied powder to the body. Firing the enamel revealed its bright colors and made the decoration durable and stable. The bottle’s rectangular shape suggests it was used in an apothecary context.
Cynthia Kok
April 2025