Beaker (Maigelbecher)

This type of slightly flared beaker or Maigelbecher, with its finely patterned surface of slender, intersecting diagonal ribs creating a diamond pattern, seems to have been made and sold over a large area of Germany. Thus scholars cannot identify either a particular glasshouse or even a region where this piece could have been produced.

In one single small German town, more than a hundred glasshouses were situated a mile or less from the network of medieval roads that connected the region with larger urban markets. The glass would be carefully wrapped in straw to protect it and then placed in hand baskets to be transported by cart or on foot across Germany and the Netherlands.