Charles Hercules Read

“ In order, therefore, to distinguish the chief’s possessions from those of his inferiors, his cup is often made with great labour, from some more intractable material, wood or stone, though in practically the same form as that of the natural object.
Among European races in medieval times the same lines have been followed, though for different reasons. Human ingenuity, though perhaps originally inspired by natural forms, is apt to turn aside into more artificial channels. ”

“ Several of those made in the 16th century are still in existence, one in the British Museum, a second at Nancy, and others are in Copenhagen and Zurich and in private collections. The upper half of the globe is removable, leaving the lower as the drinking cup. Ivory both from the beauty of its colour and the evenness of its structure has been a favourite material for drinking vessels at all times, and would seem to have been continuously used from the earliest period, whether derived from Asia or Africa, while the semi-fossil mammoth ivory of Siberia has not been neglected. ”

“ As in many other commonplace details of modern life, we must turn to the primitive races to understand how our present conditions were reached. In almost all parts of the world many of the products of nature are capable of serving such purposes, with little or no change at the hands of man; in tropical and sub-tropical climates the coco-nut and the gourd or calabash require but little change to adapt them as the most convenient of drinking utensils ”

“ A material that has one obvious merit, that of being practically unbreakable, is leather, and drinking cups were often made of it. The flagon called a “black jack” is the best-known, and examples are very common, mostly of the 17th and 18th centuries. A quaint fashion was to have a leather cup 17th and 18th century types.made in the form of a lady’s shoe; this, however, was confined to Germany and might be thought in somewhat questionable taste.
In the 17th and 18th centuries a great impetus was given to the production of curious drinking vessels in pottery. ”

“ The northern barbarians were Gothic and Scandinavian types.as great drinkers as fighters, and their literature recites with equal zest the richness of their drinking cups as the power and deadly qualities of their arms. Fortunately the practice of burying with the dead warrior all his property, or at least as much of it as he would be supposed to need, has preserved to our day the actual vessels in use by the pagan northmen who pervaded northern Europe from the 4th century onward. Saxon graves in Britain have furnished great numbers of drinking cups and horns, in many cases quite unbroken. ”

“ Crystal, agate and other hard stones, ivory, Chinese porcelain, as well as more ordinary wares, Hanaps.were all in use, as well as the precious metals. The inventories of the 14th and 15th centuries are full of entries showing that such precious cups were fairly common. Of gold cups of any antiquity naturally but few remain; the intrinsic value of the metal probably is a sufficient explanation. One of the most important in existence is however preserved in the British Museum, viz. the royal gold cup of the kings of England and France. ”

“ Of the later Saxon domestic utensils nothing remains, the habit of burying such objects with the dead having ceased on the gradual introduction of Christianity through the country. Manuscripts are our only resource, and they are not only of great rarity, but in the main rudely and conventionally drawn in their details. ”

“ Other types are perhaps nearly as characteristic, though of simpler construction. One of these is a simple cone of glass, sometimes quite plain, at others ornamented with an applied spiral glass thread, or more rarely with festoons of white glass embedded in the body of the vessel. A third form is a plain cup or bowl widely expanded at the mouth and with a rounded base, so that it could only be set down when empty, in fact a true “tumbler.” This feature is in fact a very common one in the drinking vessels of the Saxon race. ”

“ Others are treated in a freer and more naturalistic manner, the bowl being formed as the flower of the magnolia, and the entire horn, at times more than 2 ft. in length, is utilized in carrying out the design. One of this kind is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Cups of the former type are commonly found imitated in ivory-white porcelain, and are known as “libation cups.” Rhinoceros horn is held by the Chinese to be an antidote against poison, a belief shared by other nations.
There is but little to be said about the vessels used in the drinking of tea and coffee. ”

“ Domestic plate, however, being much more highly appreciated by collectors, there has been a regrettable tendency on the part of the holders of such pieces to sell them to the highest bidders; the tendency is to be deplored, for while they remain the property of the church, they are a national asset; if sold by auction, there is a great probability of their going abroad. ”

“ This type of drinking vessel was in common use in well-to-do households until the 16th century, when a change of fashion and the greater luxury and refinement dictated the adoption of more elegant and complex forms. ”

“ In Belgium, France and Germany the same types occur, and even as far north as Scandinavia, where they are found in association with Roman coins of the 4th century. On the continent, however, additional types are found that do not occur in Britain—one of these is a drinking glass in the form of a hunting horn with glass threads forming an ornamental design on the outside. ”

“ So far as evidence exists for the form of the chalice, the vase-shape with two handles seems to have been mainly succeeded by a goblet with straight sides and without handles; these latter in great part disappeared. Then came the rounded cup-shaped bowl as seen in the well-known Kremsmünster chalice. An interesting silver vessel, probably a chalice, found at Trewhiddle in Cornwall, is in the British Museum. ”

“ The drinking vessels consisted of five cows’ horns and four glass cups. The former were of great size, 2 ft. long, richly mounted at the mouth and at the point with silver bands embossed and gilt. The glasses also were of great size and of a type familiar in Saxon interments. Each was of a trumpet shape, with a small foot, while the sides were ornamented with hollow pointed tubes bent downwards, and open on the inner side, so that the liquid would fill them. Such a plan is most unpractical, and it must have been very difficult to keep the vessels clean. ”

“ Such natural objects are in fact used by the uncivilized tribes of Africa, America and Polynesia, as well as, in some cases, by the white races who have intruded into those parts of the world, and adopted some of the native habits. ”

“ An example of the former from the Hamilton Palace collection, as well as several ordinary mazers, are to be seen in the British Museum. The types above described are of English origin, with the exception of that made entirely of silver, which is thought to be French. Most of the continental forms differed from the English, and were more elaborately finished. One of the finest is that which belonged to Louis de Male, last count of Flanders. It is an exceedingly thin, shallow bowl of fine-grained wood, with a cover of the same make. ”

“ The reason of this addition may conceivably be found in the fact that such bowls were sometimes made from the lower half of a gourd or calabash, in the centre of which would be a rough projection whence the fibres of the fruit had diverged. A rarer form of mazer has the characters just mentioned and in addition is mounted upon a high foot, bringing it nearer to the category of standing cups or “hanaps.” ”