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Stirrup cup
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Stirrup cup

metalwork
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•History

Stirrup cup, originally a drink offered to a man mounted on horseback and about to depart for the hunt; now, the drinking vessel itself. Commonly connected with hunting, many of the cups are made of silver and engraved with mottoes taken from the chase. They are usually in the form of a fox’s head or, more rarely, the head of a greyhound or hare.

Many stirrup cups survive from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and their popularity as collector’s items has led to their continued production by modern silversmiths. In glass the stirrup cup took the form of a footless wineglass.