
Glass goblets engraved with short quotations or mottos were a quintessential expression of Dutch art in the 17th century. They added food for thought to the dinner table, sparking conversations about religious, philosophical, and political subjects. The inscription on the bowl of this goblet reads, “Alles heft sijn tyd. Eccles. Cap: 3.vs.I” (“There is a season for everything, Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verse 1”). On the cover, another inscription reads, “INFESTUS INFESTIS, ” a saying that means “Hostile (only) to the wicked, ” an ideal of civic and national self-defense.