Embedded Files
When we think of drinking games today, several buzz words (no pun intended) come to mind—socialization, binge drinking, party, hangover, culture. But whether a drinking game is being played in a frat house basement with red solo cups and ping pong balls or in an upper class Dutch dining room with a silver goblet, the essence of game play remains the same. These games are played with the intention of engaging a social cohort in frivolous entertainment resulting in a community bond around the consumption of alcohol. In the mid-17th century and in today’s society, drinking games often require groups of people to come together and drink alcohol quickly causing players to feel the effects of intoxication and (hopefully) bond them as a social cohort.
When we think of drinking games today, several buzz words (no pun intended) come to mind—socialization, binge drinking, party, hangover, culture. But whether a drinking game is being played in a frat house basement with red solo cups and ping pong balls or in an upper class Dutch dining room with a silver goblet, the essence of game play remains the same. These games are played with the intention of engaging a social cohort in frivolous entertainment resulting in a community bond around the consumption of alcohol. In the mid-17th century and in today’s society, drinking games often require groups of people to come together and drink alcohol quickly causing players to feel the effects of intoxication and (hopefully) bond them as a social cohort.
More simply put: drink up, drink fast, have fun.
More simply put: drink up, drink fast, have fun.
Striking and strange, this object’s use is not immediately recognized by viewers, and upon first sight, this object might be thought to be a bell. The ornate and opulent patterned design of silver base immediately conveys wealth and grandeur while the figures portrayed on its form such as the working Dutch people, the agricultural windmill, and the homely clockface and ladder tell a more personal national story of the common man. It is not until it is inverted that this object begins to resemble a silver cup, but some strangeness still lingers around its form. The most basic use of a cup is to hold liquid so it doesn’t have to be consumed all at once, so what good is a cup if it cannot be set down once filled? Why replace a key element of the cup (the base) with a spinning windmill and a pipe to blow into? Simply put, this is not a cup meant to hold liquid over an extended period of time or rest on a table between polite sips of the evening’s drink of choice. This cup is not part of a matching set of silver on a fine table setting. This cup is not a piece of décor to pull out when a host is entertaining in a domestic space; this cup is the entertainment. This silver cup is used for a drinking game.
This windmill cup, though antiquated to modern eyes, was the Dutch red solo cup of the 17th century, and everyone who used it would have understood the ontological and social world of game play just as we do today, but the cup itself tells us about more than the social drinking culture of a bygone age.
The artifact itself is decidedly Dutch, marrying the concepts of global trade through the acquisition of silver, class distinctions through ownership of elite goods like the ornate cup, and a national affinity for alcohol with community connection, social lives and group entertainment. An analysis of this singular artifact leads to a deeper understanding of Netherlandish national history and 17th century Dutch life and society. If artifacts could talk, I’d say this one would have some stories to tell…
Jan Steen, The Merry Family, c. 1668 (above)
Philips Gale, The Invention of the Windmill, c. 1590-95 (below)
Page updated
Report abuse