Royal Terrestrial Silver and Gold Gilt Globe Cup Dating from 1746 Discovered at the Rheydt Museum in M？nchengladbach

The Wunderkammer at the Rheydt Museum in M？nchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, holds a vast collection of scientific instruments, Renaissance goblets, medals, exotic pieces, paintings, plaques, and other objects that traditionally formed part of the treasure rooms of wealthy collectors. However, one particularly interesting object escaped the attention it deserved until the summer of 2025. It had been overlooked since 1953 when it had been acquired. It is a rare, silver and gold world cup, carried by an Atlantean figure, in an example of exquisite Baroque craftsmanship. Thanks to the excellent collaboration with the museum, it was possible for the first time to study this religious object in detail. The research methods I used were based on analogy in the arts, stemmatics, history of cartography, historiography, XRF and comparative analysis. On the globe cup made of 800 silver, known as Continental silver, the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Scotland is prominently engraved. In addition, it is dated 1746 and bears a decorative French rocaille in the form of acanthus, the symbol of eternal life. As it is a ciborium with the characteristic gold gilt on the inside of the globe, it was possible to identify the map(s) the designer used as a template. The engraver used at least two different maps. One inspired him for the cartouche and the date, and one world map for the cartography for the globe. The filigree decorative scenes engraved on the globe also originated from maps. The key breakthrough came from the engraving of the wording Americana rusica (Russian America) and Littora (coastline) as on a 1746 map by Johann Matthias Hase and Georg Moritz Lowitz published by Homann Heirs. The engraver was concerned with displaying the most up-to-date geographical information on the globe. Apparently, the Australian interior was still unknown, and so, in a moment of horror vacui, he somewhat speculatively placed an elephant there. The size of the object is that of a French royal foot, allowing us to identify the most likely source for its making. This is supported by the line of longitude on the globe that runs through Ferro and the 800 silver content as confirmed by XRF, the second standard silver content used in France in the 18th century. The narrative thema and design of the historical ciborium is religious and political in nature. The globe bears a Latin acronym “N.S.E.” that stands for “nostrum sepulcrum est” which means “it is our grave”. Baroque art is known often to