Box or bucket for nest of weights

Cast bronze containers of bucket shape holding nests of weights were made in the German towns of Nuremberg and Augsberg. By the 15th century, specialist workshops of 'rotschmiedmeisters' were selling their products throughout central and southern Europe and they continued to dominate the market until well into the 1700s. The container, with hinged lid and carrying handle, was designed to hold a series of diminishing cup-shaped weights; each fitting precisely one within the other. The weights were carefully standardised and the individual weights were marked accordingly, with the maker's mark, the town mark and the inspector's mark. Sets made for export were generally left unmarked. Accurate weights were needed for many commerical transactions and so sets of nested cup weights were both convenient and portable. For the most part the weights were graduated so that each one weighed twice as much as the one preceeding it. The container often weighed the same amount as the total weight of the nested cups stacked together. This allowed for precise and flexible weighing.