This mid-sixteenth-century French wine glass was likely created as a wedding gift. Made by Italian artisans working in France, the bowl features painted busts of a bearded soldier in a Spanish-style helmet and a blonde woman with a classical hairstyle and low-cut red drapery—an idealized courtly couple. Between them, scrolls display the French phrase “DE BON [coeur]” and “LE VOVS DONNE,” or “Given to you by a good heart,” emphasizing the object’s role as a heartfelt offering. A Latin inscription near the rim—Domine labia mea aperies et os meum annunciabit (“Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall announce [thy praise]”)—is written here with romantic intention. The couple’s attire, fashionable during French king Henry II’s reign (1547–59), suggests a date range for the work.

France, Marriage Goblet. Blown, mold-blown, tooled, applied, gilded, and enameled glass, mid-16th century. Height: 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm); diameter of rim: 5 1/16 in. (12.9 cm); diameter of base: 4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm). Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1948.222. On view in the Glass Pavilion, Gallery 4.

Image Description: A stemmed wine glass made of clear glass with small bubbles in it. On the facing side is a painted bust of a man seen in profile, facing right (his left). He has a pointed beard and a mustache and is wearing tall blue headgear that is crescent-shaped with a green brim. He is wearing green armor with a white collar. Flanking him are blue and green vine-like designs. The rim of the glass is decorated with a clear band outlined in blue lines and small white circles. The stem of the glass is brownish with three ribbed, evenly placed decorative knobs.