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Horn

Unknown17th or 18th century

The J. Paul Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, United States

This horn is accompanied by its original leather case, now shrunken with age. The horn could have been used as a musical instrument or for drinking ceremonies. A French inventory from 1597 mentions "two glass [musical] horns with their leather cases," although these fragile objects were probably used more for ornament than for actually producing sounds. In France in the 1400s and 1500s, musical glass horns were also sold at pilgrimage sites, where, they would have hung from around the pilgrim's neck or waist in their leather carrying-cases.

Horns with smaller openings at the tip, rather than the mouthpiece-like aperture of this example, must have been used as drinking vessels. From prehistoric times, people used actual animal horns as drinking vessels, while glass horns were used for drinking in Europe as early as the 200s.

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  • Title: Horn
  • Creator: Unknown
  • Date Created: 17th or 18th century
  • Location Created: Façon de Venise, Spain (possibly)
  • Type: Horn
  • External Link: Find out more about this object on the Museum website.
  • Medium: Free-blown amber glass with lattimo canes and applied decoration, with leather case
  • Terms of Use: Open Content
  • Number: 84.DK.565
  • Culture: Possibly Spanish
  • Credit Line: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
  • Creator Display Name: Unknown
  • Classification: Decorative Art (Art Genre)
The J. Paul Getty Museum

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