CHAPTER III
THE MAZER, THE STANDING CUP, THE FLAGON, THE TANKARD, THE BEAKER, THE WINE CUP, THE PUNCH-BOWL
The Mazer, the fifteenth-century precursor of the punch-bowl—Some historic Standing Cups (the Leigh Cup, 1499)—Stoneware jugs with silver mounts and covers—The seventeenth century—The Pepys Standing Cup—Elizabethan flagons—Seventeenth-century Tankards—The Stuart Beaker—Stuart wine cups—The “Monteith” form punch-bowl of the eighteenth century.
In this chapter it will be seen that a survey is made of the drinking vessels of silver plate in use during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With the advent of coffee and tea, silver plate found a newer field, and the coffee-pots, tea-pots, and tea-caddies of the eighteenth century are dealt with in another chapter.
During the period prior to the general use of glass, metals were employed for domestic plate. Pewter, being less costly, was more used than silver plate, which was confined to the wealthier classes; and for those of lower degree the black-jack and the “old leather bottel” sufficed. Faience from the Low Countries and from Cologne early found its way to this country. The Bellarmine jugs, large in capacity and strongly made of gres de Flandres stoneware, were possibly much in demand for serving sack and beer and other liquors consumed in large quantities. It is the tendency of all simple objects to become ornate. The earliest plain horn cups used by the herdsman and the simples developed into silver-mounted richly-chased drinking horns for use at the castle. Of this class is the drinking horn belonging to Lord Cawdor, at Golden Grove, with silver mounts supported by silver dragon and greyhound, which has a history dating from the days of Richard III.
The wooden bowl, as we see in the mazer, became enriched with costly mounts. These additions rarely added to the utility of the vessel, but they denote its elevation into usage by more wealthy people. The plain grey or mottled and excellently potted stoneware jug, the like of which Mistress Quickly must have used to pour out the canary of Falstaff and Bardolf and the thirsty set of tapsters who surrounded the fat knight, was common enough in the early sixteenth century. But in Elizabeth’s day it added luxurious appendages to itself in the shape of silver or silver-gilt rim and lid and bands and foot.
MAZER, OF MAPLE WOOD.