Goblet with the white Order of the Eagle

• Saxony, around 1760, glass, cut, partly gilded and painted, height: 33.0 cm (donation from Karl-Heinz Denkinger 1997)

The Order of the White Eagle was the highest military award in the First Republic of Poland (1569-1795). In 1705 King August the Strong donated this honour based on the Prussian Order of the Black Eagle. The inscription in the upper cross on the goblet reads: Pro fide, rege et lege, For faith, the king and the law. The initials AR on the reverse stand for Augustus Rex. Two members of the house of Mecklenburg-Strelitz were distinguished here: Duke Adolph Friedrich IV. and his brother George August Duke of Mecklenburg.

The rich accoutrements on the associated goblet symbolise the significance of the order. Orders and goblets were displayed in the rooms of Neustrelitz residential palace. When the palace was destroyed in 1945 most of the treasures from the state museum were lost. The goblet remained intact in the wreckage and came to Neustrelitz Museum in 1997.