Corporation cups is at Norwich, where
it is known as the "Petersen" cup. It is shaped like a very thick
and squat chalice, and around its top is a wide border of decorative
lettering, bearing the inscription, "THE + MOST + HERE + OF. + IS
+ DUNNE + BY + PETER + PETERSON +." This craftsman was a Norwich
silversmith of the sixteenth century, very famous in his day, and
a remarkably chaste designer as well. A beautiful ivory cup twelve
inches high, set in silver gilt, called the Grace Cup, of
Thomas a Becket, is inscribed around the top band, "_Vinum tuum bibe
cum gaudio_." It has a hall-mark of a Lombardic letter H, signifying
the year 1445. It is decorated by cherubs, roses, thistles, and
crosses, relieved with garnets and pearls. On another flat band
is the inscription: "_Sobrii estote_," and on the cover,
in Roman capitals, "_Ferare God_." It is owned by the Howard family,
of Corby.

Tankards were sometimes made of such crude materials as leather
(like the "lether bottel" of history), and of wood. In fact, the
inventory of a certain small church in the year 1566 tells of a
"penny tankard of wood," which was used as a "holy water stock."

An extravagant design, of a period really later than we are supposed
to deal with in this book, is a curious cup at Barber's and Surgeon's
Hall, known as the Royal Oak. It is built to suggest an oak tree,--a
naturalistic trunk, with its roots visible, supporting the cup,
which is in the form of a semi-conventional tree, covered with
leaves, detached acorns swinging free on rings from the sides at
intervals!

Richard Redgrave called attention to some of the absurdities of
the exotic work of his day in England. "Rachel at a well, under
an imitative palm tree," he remarks, "draws, not water, but ink;
a grotto of oyster shells with children beside it, contains... an
ink vessel; the milk pail on a maiden's head contains, not goat's
milk, as the animal by her side would lead you to suppose, but a
taper!"

One great secret of good design in metal is to avoid imitating
fragile things in a strong material. The stalk of a flower or leaf,
for instance, if made to do duty in silver to support a heavy cup or
vase, is a very disagreeable thing to contemplate; if the article
were really what it represented, it would break under the strain.
While there should be no deliberate perversion of Nature's forms,
there should be no naturalistic imitation.

CHAPTER II

JEWELRY AND PRECIOUS STON