Large Victorian silver presentation goblet

Large and impressive presentation goblet with a gilded interior. The body is heavily embossed with detailed scrollwork, flowers and foliage set against a mottled ground. There are bulbous plain sections and a large empty cartouche that could be engraved.

In the mid-fifteenth century landed gentry owned goblets and other drinking vessels crafted in silver. Since then, the goblet has remained almost entirely unchanged in its form and, because their design was eminently practical, wine glasses were similarly modelled with flat bases, thin stems and conical bowls.

Superstitious drinkers in the seventeenth century the believed that precious metals promoted better health and so the demand for silver goblets increased, but at that time their cost meant that they remained exclusively for the richest.