Object Type
This electrotype cup and cover is a copy of a 16th-century silver-gilt original. Cups had the highest status of any item made of precious metal in the 16th and early 17th centuries. They were frequently exchanged as gifts between monarchs and their subjects as well as between countries, or given to commemorate marriages and christenings and to mark important political appointments. Cups were also used as practical drinking vessels, passed around the dining table for their contents to be shared by more than one guest. They were designed in a huge variety of forms and usually gilded, therefore becoming valued as display plate and joining ewers, basins and other impressive silver vessels on a sideboard or 'buffet'.

Materials & Making
The technique of reproducing objects by electrotyping was first developed by the manufacturing firm of Elkington & Co. of Birmingham in the 1840s. A plaster mould is made from the original object and used to cast a model in base metal. The model and an amount of plating metal are connected to electric terminals and placed in a container filled with a conductive solution. The electrical current causes particles of the plating metal to be deposited on the surface of the model. The thickness of the plating can be regulated by the duration and voltage of the current. The plated object is then worked manually to erase imperfections.