Art Institute of Chicago

Ascot Cup

England, London

Date

1825/26

Medium

Silver gilt with cast, applied, and chased decoration

Culture

London

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The racecourse on Ascot Heath, in Berkshire, England, was established in 1711, and the Royal Meeting, a nearly weeklong series of horse races held there in the summer, remains one of the major events of the British social calendar. This trophy cup may be associated with the 1827 running of the prestigious Gold Cup race. It was made by Paul Storr, one of the premier English silversmiths of the day.The Ascot Cup was modeled after a very large marble vase from the 2nd century A.D. that was found in pieces in a swamp near Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, northeast of Rome, in the 1770s. Because it soon entered the collection of George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick, it became known as the Warwick Vase. Many copies of the original vase were made in the following years in iron, bronze, porcelain, and silver, including a version by Paul Storr that is also in the Art Institute’s collection. For the Ascot Cup, Storr altered some of the wine-related imagery of the original, replacing the Bacchic masks with horse’s heads that were more suitable for a racing trophy. — About This Object, European Decorative Arts LaunchPad app

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