ings of their owners, parcel-gilt, sometimes set with jewels, and occasionally they bore designs of higher pretension. A cup of silver gilt and enamelled "ove joeux des enfans," the sports of children, is mentioned in the will of Edmund Mortimer earl of March, 1380; one of gold "with the dance of men and women" in the will of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, date 1435[1]; and another enamelled with dogs occurs in that of Katherine countess of Warwick, 1369[2]. Hearts, roses, and trefoils were devices generally enamelled or chased upon drinking cups, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries[3].
It was customary to give names to particular drinking cups. Edmund earl of March, in 1380 bequeathed his son Roger a hanap of gold with a cover, called "Benesonne[4];" a name which is usually considered to have belonged to the "grace-cup." In 1392 Richard earl of Arundel and Surrey left his wife her own goblet called "Bealchier." Sir John Neville bequeathed to the abbey of Hautemprise in 1449 a cup called "ye Kataryne[5]." Large standing cups, as they were called, intended chiefly for the ornament of the table or dressoir, but also for wine, had their names; John, baron of Greystock, who died in 1436, left to Ralph his son and heir a very large silver cup and cover, called the "Charter of Morpeth[6]," a term which may recall to the reader's recollection the ruby ring, described as the "Charter of Poynings" in the will of Sir Michael de Poynings in 1368[7]. Besides these standing vessels, which were of large capacity, for we find them called "galoniers" and "demi-galoniers[8]," the table or buffet was decorated with silver "drageoirs," or "dragenalls" as they were named in England, for spices, made in many quaint shapes.
The most curious appendage however of the tables of princes and noblemen of high rank was the Ship, (nef,) which according to Le Grand, held the napkin and salt of its owner[9]:
- ↑ Testamenta Vetusta, p. 231.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 78.
- ↑ Ibid., passim.
- ↑ Royal Wills, p. 112. The writer cannot help thinking that this name, literally "blessing," was given to objects which had been left with the blessing of a testator, The following passages seem to yield a clue to its origin:—"Item, une coupe d'or, enamaille od perie, que la Reigne Alianore devisa au Roi, qui ore est, od sa beniceon." Inv. of Piers Gaveston, A.D. 1313. John duke of Lancaster bequeathed to his son the duke of Hereford, afterwards Henry the Fourth, "un fermaile d'or del veile manere, et escriptz les nons de Dieu en chescun part d'ycelle fermaile, la quele ma tres-honour dame et mier la reigne qe Dieu assoille me donna, en comandant qe jeo le gardasse ovecqe sa benison, et voille q'il la garde ovecqe la benison de Dieu et la mien." Royal Wills, p. 157.
- ↑ Testamenta Vetusta, p. 265.
- ↑ "Ciphum maximum." Wills and Inventories (Surtees Society), p. 85.
- ↑ Test. Vet., p. 73.
- ↑ Will of Cardinal Beaufort, Royal Wills, p. 325.
- ↑ Vie Privée. vol. iii. p. 188.
