in coloured cold paintwork, grey tinted glass, conical round funnel neck with fused ring, hexagonal sides with turquoise and colourless pinched vertical straps on the edges, shoulder and six segments with border painted in brown, at centre St. Nicholas of Bari in gesture of blessing with three golden spheres on his left side, on his right side a pilgrim at prayer, fountain, sea waves with sailing vessel and watchman with lancet in his left hand, also a youth with raised golden chalice and golden vessel in his hands, six disc feet on the edges and pricked base, pasted label 'Sammlung Krug' on one foot, height 19 cm, paintwork scuffed,
Venice, seventeenth century(Ru)

Lit.:
Brigitte Klesse, Glassammlung Helfried Krug, Exhibition Catalogue Museum Folkwang Essen, Oktober 1965 Januar 1966, p 70 depiction, p 71, Cat. No. 82; also see similar bottles in Coburg, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, in Köln Kunstgewerbemuseum, Klesse, glass no. 203 with depiction, in Vienna, Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Bucher, p. 61, and formerly in the collection M. Strauss, Auction Cat. Collection Dr. Max Strauss, Vienna, at Glückselig Vienna, 2.4.11.1925, No. 336 with depiction;

Lit.:
Brigitte Klesse, Kunstgewerbemuseum der Stadt Köln, Vol I, Glas, Cologne 1963, p. 103, Cat. No. 203 depiction and text: a set of corresponding bottles in the collections of the Veste Coburg is supplied with the following explanation: For dispatch of a miraculous liquid released from his, St. Nicholas' grave. It was abused by the Sicilian poison-maker Tofana, who dispatched poison in it and was executed in Palermo in 1635. Nicholas of Myra in Lykiy, now Demre, Turkey, b. between 270 and 286 in Patara, died December 6, 326, 345, 351 or 365. At the age of 19 years he was ordained a priest by his uncle Nicholas, the bishop of Myra and made abbot of the abbey Sion near Myra. He was captured and tortured during the persecution of the Christians. After evacuation from the city of Myra and its conquest by Seljuq troops in 1087, Southern Italian merchants stole the alleged remnants from the Saint's grave site in the St. Nicholas church in Demre, which is still standing today, broke open the coffin and transported the reliquaries to Bari, Italy. They are now in the Basilica San Nicola. The depictions of the bottle corresponds to the legends:
dowry of three golden spheres or apples, praying father after return of the abducted child, miracle of the source at the grave of St. Nicholas, calming of the storm at sea, Nicholas as patron of the seafarers, rescue of the drowned son, holding the chalice in his right hand.