Phot. by W. Holnicki. Click to see more

The nautilus vessel adorns one of the wardrobes in the Wardrobe (Royal Dressing Room) in Wilanów. The cup is composed of a goblet made of a polished shell of the sea snail (Latin: Nautilus), mounted in silver, richly decorated and featuring motifs of sea deities and creatures. The fashion for such vessels was prevalent in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. They were also sporadically produced in the eighteenth century and even in the following century. The most magnificent examples originated from German workshops, chiefly in Augsburg, Nürnberg and Bremen. In the seventeenth century, Gdańsk was another much valued production centre. Beautiful shells were obtained from the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, and brought to Dutch and Hanseatic ports by traders of the East India Company. The capacity of a goblet, depending on the size of the shell, oscillated from 0,5 kwarta (0,25-0,5 l.) to a garnec (1-4 l.), while its height reached 50-55 cm. The cups fulfilled a purely decorative function.