Mazer with scene of St. Margaret of Antioch and her dragon

The term mazer comes from the German word for spot, and referring to the spotted maple used to make drinking vessels like this one. The original owner of this mazer held it in such high regard that he had the rim and center medallion mounted with silver, which helped ensure its preservation for more than 500 years. In fact it was the silver, rather than the turned maple, that appealed to Minneapolis silver collector James Ford Bell when he bought the mazer in 1933. It remains the cornerstone of the Institute's English and American silver collection (as well as the museum's earliest form of lathe-turned wood).