Silver Marriage Cup from Nuremberg

This silver cup was used for the blessing over wine pronounced beneath the wedding canopy (huppa) during the marriage ceremony, a central moment of the rite; in Ashkenazic practice, the glass broken at the end of the ceremony is sometimes distinct from this cup of blessing. A family or communal object, it could be reused from one wedding to the next. In Nuremberg, once a great center of Central European goldsmithing, such silver cups are engraved with burins bearing decorative motifs and dedicatory inscriptions, sometimes including the names of the bride and groom and the date. They illustrate the excellence of South German goldsmithing placed in the service of Jewish wedding objects.