The Selby Cup
Cup
1620 (made), ca.1670 (made)
1620 (made), ca.1670 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Standing cup of turned pearwood with subsequent silver mounts of chased silver. Finial with oviform bulp encircled by a zone engraved with a couplet. Surmounted by a finial in silver, in the form of a ram's head, perhaps a crest. Domed cover rimmed at the top and around the lower edge with silver, the lower rim with triangulated border, with four connecting bands of silver.
Oviform cup with plain rim of silver supported by four vertical bands also of silver. Turned baluster stem with mereses. Conical foot rimmed in silver at the top and around the lower edge, with four connecting bands also of silver.
Oviform cup with plain rim of silver supported by four vertical bands also of silver. Turned baluster stem with mereses. Conical foot rimmed in silver at the top and around the lower edge, with four connecting bands also of silver.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
|
| Title | The Selby Cup (popular title) |
| Materials and techniques | Turned pearwood with silver mounts |
| Brief description | Standing cup and lid of turned pearwood and later mounts of silver, English, 1620 |
| Physical description | Standing cup of turned pearwood with subsequent silver mounts of chased silver. Finial with oviform bulp encircled by a zone engraved with a couplet. Surmounted by a finial in silver, in the form of a ram's head, perhaps a crest. Domed cover rimmed at the top and around the lower edge with silver, the lower rim with triangulated border, with four connecting bands of silver. Oviform cup with plain rim of silver supported by four vertical bands also of silver. Turned baluster stem with mereses. Conical foot rimmed in silver at the top and around the lower edge, with four connecting bands also of silver. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'Remember Thy End Repent and Amend. 1620' (Inscription from finial) |
| Credit line | Given by Mrs. Moir Carnegie |
| Object history | Formerly in possession of Lt. Col. Henry Howard, F.S.A., in whose family it was preserved since the marriage, in 1670, or William Mucklow, of Arcley Hall, Worcestershire (d.1713), Citizen and Fishmonger of London, with Isabella Selby, eldest daughter and co-heir of Anthony Selby of London. The cup was exhibited at the Birmingham Jubilee Commemorative Exhibition of 17th Century Art, 1934; and at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 17th Century Art, 1938. It was later shown at the V&A exhibition 'The Art of Death', January - March 1992. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Bibliographic reference | Victoria & Albert Museum: Fifty Masterpieces of Woodwork (London, 1955), no. 28.
The Selby Cup
The Worshipful Company of Turners, flourishing in London in medieval times, was re-constituted after the accession of James VI of Scotland as James I of England, on 12th June, 1604. Both in solid and in hollow turnery it was sometimes in debt to other crafts, but it exercised a wide influence of its own. The turner or wood (or ‘treen’) was able to emulate vessel form in nobler or costlier materials, as silver and glass.
This pearwood cup of stemmed silver form belongs to a kind sometimes used at table in pious households, for circulation among guests at the ‘banquet’ of marchpane or other desserts. The table was sometimes laid with models in sweetmeats, or with scriptural texts or personal allusions inscribed on roundels in the individual ‘places’. The concealed verses were probably intended, like concentric texts, to be read aloud and slowly by the drinker:
Rem-ber Thy End
Repent and Amend
This is Followed by the date 1620, when individual drinking vessels were by no means general, especially at corporate feasts.
The cup was mounted in silver as a prized Family piece, probably about 1670, when Isabella Selby, eldest daughter and co-heir of Anthony Selby, of London, was married to William Mucklow (d. 1713), Citizen and Fishmonger of London, and of Arcley Hall, Arcley Regis, Worcestershire. Descending apparently through the female line, it passed to Henry Howard, F.S.A., and thence into the collection of the late Moir Carnegie. It was given to the Museum by Mrs. Moir Carnegie, in 1950.
English; cup 1620, mounts 1670.
H. 19 ¾ in., Diam. 7 ½ in. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.31:1,2-1950 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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