Seychelles nut ewer

In his famous Kunstkammer at his court in Prague, around 1600, Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612) amassed an eclectic collection of artworks, exotic naturalia from the New World, and scientific instruments. This example of a Seychelles nut ewer was fashioned for him by his two court artists, Nikolaus Pfaff (1556–1612) and Anton Schweinberger (ca. 1550–1603), as an ideal-typical example of the fusion of nature and art. The Seychelles nut was once believed to be a ‘sea nut’; it is in fact the seed of the Lodoicea, a genus of palm, specimens of which were often washed up on beaches in the Indian Ocean.

Seychelles nut ewer, Seychelles nut with silver mounts, 38.5 cm × 36.5 cm × 26 cm, 1602, artist: Anton Schweinberger, carver: Nikolaus Pfaff; source: © KHM-Museumsverband, https://www.khm.at/de/object/92885/, Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.de.