- 265
A George IV silver wager cup, Joseph Angel, 1827
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description
- 18cm, 7in high
modelled as a maid in 17th century dress with full pleated skirt, holding vine brackets and a swivelling pail aloft
Catalogue Note
Wagers cups originate from Germany in the late 16th Century, and were popular there and in the Netherlands until early the following century. Although there are no precise records, it has been suggested that the form may even have made at an earlier date. Traditionally a wedding custom, the game, or the wager was for the man to first drink from the larger cup, formed as the full skirt, without spilling that of the smaller cup, or pail, which rotated as the woman drank from it, sometimes simultaneously, and also without spilling a drop.
English wager cups of the same period are very rare. Two examples in the Vinters' Company collection: one silver, maker's mark WF conjoined, possibly for William Fowle, London, 1682, and another silver-gilt, maker's mark possibly TI, two escallops between (Thomas Jenkins), possibly London, circa 1680. In The Vintners' Catalogue of Plate, Sophia Lee mentions that 'According to the tradition, every liveryman was required to retain his wine whilst toasting the prosperity of the Vinters' Company from the main cup, and the health of the Master from the small – "kissing the maid" as it was suggestively termed!' In the late 1820s The Vinters' Company commissioned a number of replicas of their undated cup, of which this is certainly one.
A similar silver cup, also Joseph Angell, London, 1828, was sold at Sotheby's, London, 16 July 1987, lot 401. Another of 1828 was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 6 April 1989, lot 87.
A Rare Charles II silver wager cup automaton, maker's mark only R.B, a mullet below in a shaped shield, circa 1680, was sold at Sotheby's, London, on 24 October 1985, lot 381. Literature The Vinters' Catalogue of Plate, Sophia Lee, Wiltshire, 1996, pp. 36-37, pl. 10. Charles Oman, Caroline Silver, London, 1970, p. 42. Wenzel Jamnitzer, Germanisches National Museum, Munich, 1985, pp. 276-277, catalogue number 114.
English wager cups of the same period are very rare. Two examples in the Vinters' Company collection: one silver, maker's mark WF conjoined, possibly for William Fowle, London, 1682, and another silver-gilt, maker's mark possibly TI, two escallops between (Thomas Jenkins), possibly London, circa 1680. In The Vintners' Catalogue of Plate, Sophia Lee mentions that 'According to the tradition, every liveryman was required to retain his wine whilst toasting the prosperity of the Vinters' Company from the main cup, and the health of the Master from the small – "kissing the maid" as it was suggestively termed!' In the late 1820s The Vinters' Company commissioned a number of replicas of their undated cup, of which this is certainly one.
A similar silver cup, also Joseph Angell, London, 1828, was sold at Sotheby's, London, 16 July 1987, lot 401. Another of 1828 was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 6 April 1989, lot 87.
A Rare Charles II silver wager cup automaton, maker's mark only R.B, a mullet below in a shaped shield, circa 1680, was sold at Sotheby's, London, on 24 October 1985, lot 381. Literature The Vinters' Catalogue of Plate, Sophia Lee, Wiltshire, 1996, pp. 36-37, pl. 10. Charles Oman, Caroline Silver, London, 1970, p. 42. Wenzel Jamnitzer, Germanisches National Museum, Munich, 1985, pp. 276-277, catalogue number 114.