Footnotes

• Literature:
  Lloyd (2000), p.87, pl.115 and p.85
  
  No similar examples appear to be recorded in the glass literature. However, the form is derived from silver and pottery of the second half of the 17th century. Silver wine cups are widely recorded whilst in English delftware the form - often known as a caudle cup - generally has a handle. In both instances, coats of arms or royal portraits may be found, mirroring that on the present lot.
  
  Curiously, within the coat of arms there is also a papal crown to the head of the lion. This may signify that the engraver had Catholic sympathies.

Saleroom notices

• Please note that there is rim chip not mentioned in the catalogue. An almost identical pair of rare wine cups engraved by the same hand as the present lot, one bearing the royal arms together with an orange tree on the reverse, and the other with the coat of arms of the Dutch Republic, a rose on the reverse, can be found in Royal Collections at the palace of Het Loo. The residence of the House of Orange-Nassau near Apeldoorn since the late 17th century, Het Loo is now a museum. The English coat of arms as used by William III is the version used from 11th/21st April 1689 until the end of that year. The orange tree on the English glass and the English rose on the Dutch example symbolises the close relationship between the two countries when William III and Mary II were King and Queen of Great Britain.