Inscribed around the rim: D:D: GUL: MASTER C:F: IN USUM SACRISTAE COLL: WINTON 1762 [Given by William Master for the use of the sacristy of Winchester College, 1762].

The donor, William Master was a Scholar (1729) of Winchester College. After a Fellowship at New College he held a benefice in Essex. This secular drinking cup was made in Augsburg, as shown by the town mark (shaped like a bunch of grapes or pineapple), which allows reasonably precise dating as about 360 different versions are recorded. A zigzag line (known as the Tremulierstitch), visible around the lip and on the foot of the cup, was made by the assayer to test the purity of the silver.

The diamond-shaped embossing of the stem and the lower part of the bowl was a popular form of decoration in southern Germany in the early seventeenth century and imitates the appearance of turned ivory vessels.

Timothy Schroder writes: ‘Melchior Bair (c. 1550-1634) was born in Nuremburg and was possibly related to the famous Melchior Baier of that city, one of Nuremburg’s most outstanding masters before Wenzel Jamnitzer. The Augsburg goldsmith was of lesser stature. Most of his surviving works are of a more domestic nature and of fine rather than courtly character.’

Literature: Philip Braithwaite, The Church Plate of Hampshire (London, 1909), pp. xxiii, 366 (illustrated); Charles Oman, ‘The Winchester College Plate’, The Connoisseur (January, 1962), p. 32 (illustrated).

Exhibited: Winchester Cathedral Treasury, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980; ‘Treasures of the English Church’, Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, 30 May – 12 July 2008.

Provenance: Given by William Master, 1762

Location: Treasury, Gallery 1