Historical significance: A similar large goblet dated 1578 is in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Also fragments of two further goblets of this type have been found in excavations at Southampton. The attribution of the whole group of goblets to Verzelini rests on the identification of Anthony de Lysle as the French glass engraver recorded in London at exactly the period of these dated glasses. The links between the engraver and the Pewterers' Company (with which de Lysle was connected) and the English dedications make this identification convincing. The glasses themselves differ little from those imported from Venice, and indeed were probably identical to those made by Verzelini on the Continent before he came to London.

Object Type
Clear glass goblets of this type were made in Italy and by emigrant Italian glassmakers in other parts of Northern Europe, notably France, the Low Countries and England. The glass itself is too large to be a conventional wine glass and may have been intended for strong beer. However, its primary role was probably simply as an engraved presentation piece to John and Jone Dier (members of a large Somerset family), perhaps to commemorate some family event of 1581.

Collectors & Owners
As early as the 1920s there was much interest in this group of about a dozen engraved glasses with English inscriptions and dates in the late 16th century. Publication of the group, and the possibility that the glasses were made by the famous glassmaker Giacomo Verzelini (1522-1616), persuaded museums and collectors to acquire the few available examples. After the gift of Wilfred Buckley's collection, including two glasses by Verzelini, to the V&A in 1936, almost all the group was to be found in public collections.

The evidence that Verzelini made this group of glasses is compelling but entirely circumstantial. The glasses themselves are little different from those made by Italian workmen in other parts of Europe at the time, but they do bear English inscriptions. The inscriptions may plausibly be linked to the French glass engraver, Anthony de Lysle, who is known to have worked in London (he is recorded there in 1582 and 1583). Verzelini's monopoly of 1574 (his exclusive right to produce and sell Venetian-style glass in England) forbade the import of Venetian glass, so in theory de Lysle would have been compelled to purchase English glass from the Verzelini glasshouse. De Lysle was also a pewterer, and the presence of the metalworking technique of gilding, together with the motto of the Pewterers' Company on one glass of the group, strengthen the likelihood that he engraved the glass, In turn, this reinforces the connection with Verzelini. After about 70 years this convincing chain of evidence still remains to be challenged.