Wine is poured from pitchers like this one during the celebration of communion in Christian church services. Ernst Riegel designed the flagon, which is made of brass and gilded on the inside. A horizontal decorative strip, slightly recessed, and edged by an undulating band, encircles the spherical body, which rests on a foot. It divides the vessel optically into two halves, the surfaces of which are each divided into eight sections. The long, cylindrical neck ends in an elongated spout on one side. Opposite is an ear-shaped handle with jagged edges that tapers toward the bottom. A domed lid with thumb rest completes the flagon. A cross is perched on the lid, resting on a six-petalled rosette.

Riegel designed the flagon in 1907 or 1908 as part of his efforts to produce simply designed liturgical objects for less affluent Protestant congregations. According to a note by Riegel, the flagon “made for Waldülfersheim was returned by the pastor. The communion flagon was then purchased by the Arts and Crafts museum in Frankfurt a.M. [now the Museum Angewandte Kunst].” It was therefore presumably never or only rarely used in a church service.

Riegel began an apprenticeship as a metal engraver in 1887 and studied under Fritz von Miller (18400–1921) at the Royal School of Arts and Crafts in Munich from 1890. He worked in Miller’s workshop from 1895. There he made his mark with the design of liturgical objects, goblets (cf. inv. no. 5069), medals, and bowls (cf. inv. no. St.248). From 1906 he was a member of the Darmstadt artists’ colony. In 1912, the School of Arts and Crafts in Cologne finally appointed him professor of goldsmithing. In 1933, the National Socialists removed him from his post and defamed him as an artist.