Brandy taster, silver, London hallmarks for 1675-76, mark of John Richardson.

Silver, two-handled, circular, flat-bottomed cup, embossed with grapes on the base, the side embossed with tulips.

Bequeathed by W. J. Johnson

John Richardson, who made this piece, was among the most important goldsmiths in London in the late seventeenth century. Born in Worcester in the early 1640s, he was apprenticed to the prominent London goldsmith Henry Greenway and eventually took over his master's business when Greenway retired in 1670. Richardson enjoyed a successful career: the scale of his activity is reflected in the number of apprentices (four) attached to his workshop, and in the importance of the commissions entrusted to him. These included candlesticks, flagons, a basin and altar cruets for Westminster Abbey, marked for London 1684-85.

Personal matters appear to have motivated his return to Worcester in around 1695, and he died there in 1697-98.

One early owner valued the cup sufficiently to inscribe his initials 'IB' on the rim; two other sets of initials are scratched faintly on the underside. Beyond these initials, nothing is known of the cup's early owners. It was bequeathed to the Museum in 1944 by W. J. Johnson as a sweetmeat dish, an identification perhaps suggested by the three eighteenth-century ball and claw feet added to the base at an unspecified date. These three feet were subsequently removed by the Museum, and the piece reattributed as a brandy taster in 1995-96. The maker's mark has been the source of some confusion. Originally described simply as 'R in a shaped estucheon', it was redescribed in the mid-1990s as 'PR in monogram over a cinquefoil'. Recent research (Davidson and Davidson: 2010) suggests it should be read as 'JR'.

M.1699-1944