A SPANISH OR SPANISH COLONIAL SILVER-GILT AND ENAMEL TWO-HANDLED CUP
A SPANISH OR SPANISH COLONIAL SILVER-GILT AND ENAMEL TWO-HANDLED CUP
1 More
A SPANISH OR SPANISH COLONIAL SILVER-GILT AND ENAMEL TWO-HANDLED CUP

FIRST QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

Details
A SPANISH OR SPANISH COLONIAL SILVER-GILT AND ENAMEL TWO-HANDLED CUP
FIRST QUARTER 17TH CENTURY
The lobed circular cup centered by a boss decorated with scrolls and blue and green enamel, with two beaded scroll handles and raised on a circular foot, apparently unmarked
5 ½ in. (14 cm.) long, over handles
6 oz. (186.6 cm.) gross weight
Provenance
Acquired from S.J. Phillips Ltd., London, 2 August 1985.
Literature
T. Schroder, Renaissance and Baroque Silver, Mounted Porcelain and Ruby Glass from the Zilkha Collection, London, 2012, cat. no. 7, pp. 86-87.

Brought to you by

Jill Waddell
Jill Waddell Vice President, Senior Specialist

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

Sign in
View condition report

Lot Essay

The enameled boss in the interior of this cup may have served, along with the bright convex flutes of the sides, to show the clarity of the wine, much in the same way as a raised boss in the bottom of a traditional wine taster functions. These raised bosses originally derived from the often elaborate cage-type bosses intended to hold a bezoar stone in the so-called "Poison Cups" of the Renaissance period. A similarly formed bowl, circa 1620 by a Spanish silversmith working in Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), was sold at Christie's, New York, 16 April 1999, lot 161, having been recovered in 1985 from the shipwreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha which sank off the coast of the Florida Keys in 1622. A gold "poison cup" with a bezoar stone, also recovered from the wreck of the Atocha in 1973, is in the collection the Maritime Heritage Society, Key West, Florida.

More from Global Treasury: The Life and Collection of Selim & Mary Zilkha

View All
View All