Inscribed on the side of the bowl: Ex dono Praeno: :bilis Caroli Dm: / Marchionis Winton &c: [A gift from the noble Charles, Marquis of Winchester etc].

Engraved with the Paulet arms on the side of the bowl and the cover.

This is one of the largest silver cups of the seventeenth century, rivalled only by the Dolben Porringer (1678) at Inner Temple, which is said to weigh 134 oz (4.17 kg). Such cups were intended largely for display, but may have been drunk from on ceremonial occasions. Although the size of this cup is unusual, the form and decoration have close parallels in smaller examples from the reign of Charles II.

The donor, Charles Paulet (c. 1630-99), was the sixth Marquess of Winchester (from 1675) and first Duke of Bolton (from 1689). His eldest son, also Charles (1661-1722), appears on the school Long Rolls as a Commoner in 1674 and 1675. He gave £50 towards the building of a new schoolroom (begun in September 1683), and the Paulet arms form part of the plasterwork decoration of the ceiling.

The maker, Ralph Leake (d. 1716), was one of the outstanding English silversmiths of the late seventeenth century, but little is known about his life. He was apprenticed to the plateworker Thomas Littleton from 1664 to 1671 and later worked for the King’s Goldsmith, Sir Robert Vyner. In 1682 Leake signed the Working Goldsmiths’ Petition against the Strangers. He was active in the Goldsmiths’ Company during his career, holding a number of offices. Several fine examples of his work are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, including a set of communion plate for St James, Piccadilly (1683-84).

Literature: Percy MacQuoid, ‘The Plate of Winchester College’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 2, no. 5 (July 1903), pp. 156-7, plate IIIc; E. Alfred Jones, Old Silver of Europe and America from Early Times to the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1928), p. 125; Charles Oman, ‘The Winchester College Plate’, The Connoisseur (January, 1962), p. 30 (illustrated); Charles Oman, Caroline Silver, 1625-1688 (London, 1970), p. 41, plate 16A; R. Foster (ed.), 50 Treasures from Winchester College (London, 2019), p. 17.

Provenance: Gift of Charles, sixth marquess of Winchester, 1682

Location: Treasury, Gallery 1