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Lot Essay
This so called 'Armorial Cup' is one of a group, the earliest known dating from 1603, and the latest recorded as 1687. Edward Pinto in Treen and Early Wooden Bygones, 1968, dismisses the original theory that they were fashionable communion cups. The practise of using wooden cups was forbidden by the Canons of Winchester as early as 1071, on the grounds that the material would absorb the Host.
Despite the fact that this veto would probably not have been observed in parishes up and down the country, he states that communion cups were of a form dictated by authority, and it is unlikely that a fashionable treen series would ever have been made.
Pinto goes on to dismiss another belief that the heraldry on the cups relate to Royal cup bearers. Although some of the symbols on the cups do indeed conform, these were mostly prior to the reign of James I, and as such pre-dating the series.
Pinto also dismisses the idea that they could be wooden patterns for examples executed in silver, stating that no comparable examples remain to enforce the theory. This is taking into account the destruction of silver during the Commonwealth period, and that despite this the likelihood being that some examples would have been hidden and survived the Roundhead melting pots.
Pinto speculates with his own theory on the cups, suggesting that they could relate to an exclusive 17th century society. At Burghley House, Stamford, seat of the Marquess of Exeter, are some portraits of members of the Honourable Order of Little Bedlam. The club was founded in 1684 by the 5th Earl of Exeter and reformed in 1705. The members each had to adopt the name of a particular animal, often relating to their own armorial insignia, after which the member being refered to as that animal amongst the society.
It is possible an earlier society existed but came to an end during the Civil War, and in the meantime the cups were hidden away at Burghley. The 5th Earl knowing of the existence of the society reinventing it as the Order of Little Bedlam.
The underside of the lid and base of this cup are applied with the printed and ink inscribed collection labels of Alfred Trapnell. Trapnell was a collector of important Plymouth and Bristol glass and Worcester porcelain and is believed to have given his name to the 'Trapnell pattern' of porcelain still in production by Spode and introduced circa 1901 by Thomas Goode & Co. Trapnell's motto was 'If you are a collector you will never feel old'.
For further reference to these armorial cups see H. Clifford-Smith F.S.A., 'Heraldic Wooden Cups of the Jacobean Period; The Property of Sir Gerald Ryan Bt', The Connoisseur, LXVIII, 1924, pp. 3-10 and Owen Evan-Thomas, Domestic Utensils of Wood, 1973, pl. 13-16.
A similar lot was sold from the collection of the late Mrs J.H. Dent-Brocklehurst, Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, Christie's, London, 24 October 1991, lot 1 and another in The Jonathan Levi Collection: Treen for the Table, Christie's, South Kensington, 8 November 2006, lot 177.
Despite the fact that this veto would probably not have been observed in parishes up and down the country, he states that communion cups were of a form dictated by authority, and it is unlikely that a fashionable treen series would ever have been made.
Pinto goes on to dismiss another belief that the heraldry on the cups relate to Royal cup bearers. Although some of the symbols on the cups do indeed conform, these were mostly prior to the reign of James I, and as such pre-dating the series.
Pinto also dismisses the idea that they could be wooden patterns for examples executed in silver, stating that no comparable examples remain to enforce the theory. This is taking into account the destruction of silver during the Commonwealth period, and that despite this the likelihood being that some examples would have been hidden and survived the Roundhead melting pots.
Pinto speculates with his own theory on the cups, suggesting that they could relate to an exclusive 17th century society. At Burghley House, Stamford, seat of the Marquess of Exeter, are some portraits of members of the Honourable Order of Little Bedlam. The club was founded in 1684 by the 5th Earl of Exeter and reformed in 1705. The members each had to adopt the name of a particular animal, often relating to their own armorial insignia, after which the member being refered to as that animal amongst the society.
It is possible an earlier society existed but came to an end during the Civil War, and in the meantime the cups were hidden away at Burghley. The 5th Earl knowing of the existence of the society reinventing it as the Order of Little Bedlam.
The underside of the lid and base of this cup are applied with the printed and ink inscribed collection labels of Alfred Trapnell. Trapnell was a collector of important Plymouth and Bristol glass and Worcester porcelain and is believed to have given his name to the 'Trapnell pattern' of porcelain still in production by Spode and introduced circa 1901 by Thomas Goode & Co. Trapnell's motto was 'If you are a collector you will never feel old'.
For further reference to these armorial cups see H. Clifford-Smith F.S.A., 'Heraldic Wooden Cups of the Jacobean Period; The Property of Sir Gerald Ryan Bt', The Connoisseur, LXVIII, 1924, pp. 3-10 and Owen Evan-Thomas, Domestic Utensils of Wood, 1973, pl. 13-16.
A similar lot was sold from the collection of the late Mrs J.H. Dent-Brocklehurst, Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, Christie's, London, 24 October 1991, lot 1 and another in The Jonathan Levi Collection: Treen for the Table, Christie's, South Kensington, 8 November 2006, lot 177.