A Tudor burr maple mazer bowl

A Tudor burr maple mazer bowl, the centre of the bowl with a silver-gilt boss or 'print' engraved with a band of German script and the Pieta on a hatched ground, originally with a silver rim, late 15th / early 16th century, 13.2cm wide.

A mazer is a special type of drinking vessel dating from the 13th -16th centuries. The name mazer come from Old German 'maser' which means spot and relates to the burr or spotted maple that the bowls were made from. Mazer bowls can be seen in engravings from as early as the late 13th century. They are on the whole generally shallow and are usually augmented with silver rims to increase their drinking capacity. The use of a devotional image to the central 'print' points to the fact that it was probably made for a religious institution. For examples of silver mounted mazer bowls see: Woolley & Wallis, Silver, 31st March, Lot 316 'The Cookson Mazer' and Bonham's Fine Silver and Vertu, London, 25th July 2003, Lot 117.