Cups decorated with lobes were popular in Germany in the 17th century. This cup, like the chalice beside it, consists of many different parts made separately and fitted onto each other. The bowl, lid and foot were all 'raised' by hammering a sheet of silver over a stake. The lobed effect was created by embossing (hammering the metal into relief from the underside). The floral decoration above the lid and around the stem is made by cutting notches into flat strips of silver and curling the cut edges to create the impression of petals. These would originally have been plain or 'white' silver. The fact that they are golden tells us that the whole cup was re-gilt at a later date.

Gilding was a very toxic process in which red-hot plates of gold were placed in an iron ladle filled with boiling mercury where they combined to make an amalgam. This was placed in a chamois leather bag and squeezed to remove most of the mercury, leaving a thick paste. This paste was then painted onto the object which was placed in a low oven to burn off the remaining mercury leaving a thin layer of gold.