Cover for a Two-Handled Cup (1677): Art, History and Details

Cover for a Two-Handled Cup (1677) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Due to its size and ornament, the vessel accompanying this lid may have functioned as a caudle cup, containing a mixture of ale or wine and bread, oatmeal, eggs, sugar, and spices that was given to women after childbirth to help them regain their strength. The scrolling foliage and exotic birds along the exterior of the cup were likely based on prints circulating in the 1600s. The reclining female figures capping the handles and the acanthus bud finial on the lid recall common architectural motifs.

Object facts

• Title: Cover for a Two-Handled Cup
• Date: 1677
• Culture: England, London
• Type: Silver
• Technique: silver and silver gilt
• Dimensions: Overall: 17.2 x 11.5 cm (6 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1958.422.b

A detail from the museum

This is a lid for a two-handled cup. See cover record.

Collection credit

In honor of William Mathewson Milliken in appreciation of his interest in Cleveland artists

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.