1493 Cup in the Goldsmith’s Company Collection

Histories

At a recent visit to the Goldsmith’s Company I had the pleasure of holding and examining the earliest silver item in their collection and one of the earliest pieces of fully marked secular plate. Found in the roof of St Andrew’s Church, Middleton, Yorkshire, and subsequently purchased by the Company in 1976, it is a silver cup made in 1493 with partial gilt traces, measuring 13.7 cm tall and with a maker’s mark of an escallop below a batón and a leopards head.

1493 cup in the goldsmith's company collection.

Silver items dating from long ago are extremely rare. Aristocratic families often kept as much as thirty per cent of their wealth in their silverware and when money was short these silver items were simply melted down. During the English civil war in the middle of the 17th century a vast amount of English silver was melted to pay the troops, making silver from prior to this date extremely rare.

In the Hersey Collection you will find a large silver tumbler cup 65mm tall and with a gilded interior.

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2 Comments

  • Reply
    kate
    September 3, 2018 at 2:19 pm

    My mum has this tea pot with an ingraving underneath “I. Tyler sheffield 5.1/2 pints 1493. Please could you give us any info that u may have on this piece of silver ware or could you direct us in another direction for information? Thank you.

    • Reply
      Stewart Hersey
      September 4, 2018 at 9:20 am

      Hi Kate,

      It sounds like the tea pot is silver plated, with 1493 being the pattern number and the maker being I.Tyler of Sheffield.

      I hope this helps?

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