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Lot Essay
Highly decorated and of significant weight, covered cups were among the most treasured plate in Tudor households. Often specifically denoted in wills and occasionally given gallant names, such as 'Brave Harrie’ as owned by Lady Elizabeth Kitson (1546⁄7-1628), these stately cups were always made with covers and were listed firstly and singly in inventories of drinking vessels. Some cups in royal and noble households were made with matching assay cups (see P. Glanville, Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England, London, 1990, p. 235).
At 11 oz. 8 dwt., the present cup and cover is a petite example of this illustrious form. In his catalogue of the Zilkha collection (Schroder, 2012, p. 98), Timothy Schroder notes that the royal jewel house likely held the largest number of cups and covers in the 16th century, with approximately two hundred itemized in the 1574 inventory. Within this group, only six cups were smaller than the Zilkha cup; the lightest of which weighed 8 oz. and was catalogued as ‘little Cup with a Cover guilt.'
A 1559 communion cup in the collection of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London, displays the same maker’s mark, described in I. Pickford's Jackson's Silver and Gold Marks of England, Scotland & Ireland as 'A lamp' (London, 2009, p. 94). E. Freshfield in The Communion Plate of the Churches of the City of London (London, 1894), suggests the ambiguous hallmark may ‘possibly intended to represent scales’.
At 11 oz. 8 dwt., the present cup and cover is a petite example of this illustrious form. In his catalogue of the Zilkha collection (Schroder, 2012, p. 98), Timothy Schroder notes that the royal jewel house likely held the largest number of cups and covers in the 16th century, with approximately two hundred itemized in the 1574 inventory. Within this group, only six cups were smaller than the Zilkha cup; the lightest of which weighed 8 oz. and was catalogued as ‘little Cup with a Cover guilt.'
A 1559 communion cup in the collection of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London, displays the same maker’s mark, described in I. Pickford's Jackson's Silver and Gold Marks of England, Scotland & Ireland as 'A lamp' (London, 2009, p. 94). E. Freshfield in The Communion Plate of the Churches of the City of London (London, 1894), suggests the ambiguous hallmark may ‘possibly intended to represent scales’.