The Argenterium (ie silverware) is the work of Christian I Pichgel (*1652, active 1681–1700), a Gdańsk-based goldsmith specializing in the production of, among others, richly decorated beer mugs. Pichgel was active during the years 1681–1700 (the workshop was open until ca. 1715), and the artefact on display is one of about twenty preserved beer mugs of this leading Gdańsk workshop of the late 17th century .
From the 16th century to the end of the 18th centurycentury, Gdańsk was the most important center of craft, trade and brokerage in the trade of goods between the domestic market and the Hanseatic cities or Dutch ports. The city was also a great center of goldsmith art, and numerous workshops were producing silverwares for wealthy and educated recipients both in Gdańsk as well as in other regions of the country. The goldsmiths of Gdańsk were masters in fashioning figurative scenes and ornaments chased in metal, creating rich relief decoration on dish bodies.
Silver beer mugs from Gdańsk are an example of luxury sideboard dishes of the Baroque period, the possession of which was proof of a high social position and the wealth of the owner.
From the 1st half of the 17thcentury, silverware, including beer mugs, was decorated with decorations referring to antiquity, inspired by, among others Ovid's metamorphoses. In addition to the mythological scenes, the silver vessels featured, among others, biblical motifs and allegories, which were enriched with various ornaments. The iconographic themes of the depictions were inspired by graphics, and the ornamental motifs were sourced from templates widespread in Europe.
The beer mug with the images of Neptune, Ceres and Pomona was purchased for the Technical and Industrial Museum in Kraków before 1911. In 1950, after the institution was nationalised, together with its entire collection, it was handed over to the National Museum in Kraków .