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The Lambarde Cup is a fine example of an Elizabethan, silver gilt, standing cup. Such cups were first used in England during the fourteenth century and were distinguished by their shape, their cover and round base. This Cup is dated 1578 and is attributed to the goldsmith John Bird. It measures 12_ inches tall, weighs 25_ oz and has a one pint capacity.
Having founded Queen Elizabeth’s College by Royal Charter in 1575, Lambarde presented to the Company the cup in 1579 ‘thereon to Remayne to this Company for Ever’. In the Ordinances Lambarde specified that the Wardens should hand the cup from Warden to Warden through the ages.
On several subsequent occasions the Company was obliged to melt down its plate in order to meet the demands of Crown and Government for money, and the Lambarde Cup is the only piece of this date that escaped destruction. In the years 1640 and 1641 it is described in the Lists of Plate as Lambarde described, ‘the College Cup’, and from 1642 to 1860 as ‘it belongs to Queen Elizabeth’s College, East Greenwich’. It is possible that these entries were made in order to indicate that the cup belonged more to the College than to the Company, so that when the Company’s own property was sacrificed, it might be possible to keep the cup, and so carry out Lambarde’s wish that it should remain to the Company for ever. However that may be, it certainly is a fact that the cup is the only piece of plate now in the possession of the Company that belonged to it before the Commonwealth.
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The cover of the cup has not been so fortunate. In 1860 it was sent to Garrard & Co. to be repaired, and a new finial was made in the shape of a figure of Queen Elizabeth at an inclusive cost of £25. Whether this figure was a copy of the original finial, or whether the cover was originally in its present form, it has been impossible to discover. The figure was removed in 1912 by George Roe and the present finial was added, being considered to be more in keeping with a cup of this kind, at a cost of £21. The figure of Queen Elizabeth had the crest of the Company placed on its base by Cecil Thomas at a cost of £4 in 1913, and can now be used as a seal.
Features of the Cup
The decoration upon the Cup is the result of beautiful workmanship. There are three coats of arms engraved on the Cup - those of England for the governing Charter of the almshouse, those of the Master of the Rolls for the President and those of the Company for the Governors. Between each coat of arms is the portrait of a man’s head – one represents a broad featured, bearded man, with four birds standing round it; another is of a man with whiskers, beard, and moustache, between two flying birds; and the third is of a youth in a flat cap and a small ruff, flanked by two winged Caryatide figures.
The lower part of the body is fluted, the stem being finely chased with masks and fruit, held by three beaded and scrolled supports. The base is round and is also chased with masks and fruits in alternate panels on frosted and chintz pattern background.
The cover is finely chased and engraved with similar ornaments matching the foot, and is surmounted by a baluster terminal top with gadroon borders.
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