Coconut cup
Category
Silver
Date
1778 - 1779
Materials
Silver-mounted coconut cup and cover.
Measurements
21.3 x 21.1 x 12.5 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516503
Summary
A two-handled coconut cup, mounted in silver, unmarked; with a cover, silver (sterling), London, 1778/9, no sponsor’s mark. The large, undecorated, polished coconut rests on a raised, stepped, circular, silver foot with a calyx of ten openwork straps. The sides are applied with two oval silver plaques engraved with scalloped borders; one contains a crest, the other the monogram ‘RNG’. The cup is not lined. Beneath the undecorated silver rim is a narrow openwork border of scallops. The two cast double-scroll handles are topped with acanthus leaves. The cup is secured to the foot by a nut; the handles, lower straps and plaques are pinned. The silver cover is raised; the domed centre applied with ten cut-card straps round a cast berry finial. Heraldry: The crest of a lion passant is possibly for GOODE or GRIFFITH. Hallmarks: Partially hallmarked on the underside of the cover only: lion passant (sterling), ‘c’ (1778/9), and indistinct leopard’s head (London), no sponsor’s mark Scratch weight: None
Full description
Until the middle of the seventeenth-century Europeans considered coconuts so rare and exotic that they were collected by royalty and the wealthy, who had them mounted in silver and used for display or drinking. As the supply of coconuts increased their novelty wore off, and the fashion for mounting the nuts waned. However, some coconut cups were made in the late 18th and early 19th century, often with decoratively carved nuts. A large number of fakes were made at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when collecting old silver was at the peak of fashion, and unscrupulous silversmiths and dealers created ‘antiques’ to supply the demand. Whether this covered cup was made in the late 18th century was debated, but after being examined by two panels of experts the consensus was that it is genuine. The causes for concern were: the lack of any hallmarks on the base; the lack of a sponsor’s mark in the cover; the brightness of the silver particularly round the cover’s hallmarks; the design with openwork straps is out of period; pits on two of the straps, and the colour of the coconut. But all these can be explained if the cup is a historicist object which has been repaired. HERALDY Similar crests are common to many families and lions are perhaps the most frequently encountered, so it is impossible to identify on its own. However, the initials RNG in sequence on the other cartouche suggest a surname beginning with ‘G’. Jane Ewart, 2025 Heraldry by Gale Glynn
Provenance
(Urban) Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven (1896-1966) bequeathed by Lord Fairhaven to the National Trust along with the house and the rest of the contents National Trust
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, the Fairhaven Collection (National Trust)