Essay

Whilst wager cups are relatively common in Germany and Holland from the late 16th century onwards, they are extremely rare in English silver. In fact only 6 are known from the 17th century: One from the Gilbert Collection with maker’s mark only RB, circa 1680, a pair in the Untermeyer Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, maker’s mark only of IA circa 1660, two belonging to The Worshipful Company of Vintners, circa 1680 and one sold at Christies London in 1946, June 19th   lot 107 dated 1682. A later Irish example of 1706 by Joseph Walker is in  the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In 1827, the Worshipful Company of Vintners commissioned Joseph Angel to make some copies of their 17th century example and this is of these cups. Apart from these copies no other Georgian examples are known to exist.

The current examples follow the tradition form of a skirted woman holding aloft a small pivoting cup. The branches on these examples are fruiting vines which are a reference to the Vintners’ Company and differ from the original.

The idea behind such cups or the “Wager” was to upturn the cup and fill it with wine but to make the whole matter far more challenging the smaller pivoting cup was also filled. The task then was to drink the larger cup without spilling any of the contents of the smaller.

There are a great many late 19th century Continental reproductions of these cups in a variety of sizes, the quality, however, is not high.