Cleveland Museum of Art

Cover for a Trophy Cup

Peter Bateman

Date

1792–93

Medium

silver gilt

Culture

England, 18th century

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Silver fulfilled a prominent role in projecting wealth, status, power, and ritual in British life during the 1600s and 1700s. Elaborate forms such as the trophy that accompanies this lid, with its swags of flowers, neoclassical rosettes, and acanthus spears, not only represented wealth in its sheer silver weight but also provided royal and aristocratic owners a surface for displaying engraved coats of arms. Engraved on one side of the trophy cup can be found the arms of Robert Grosvenor (1767–1845), the first Marquess of Westminster, and Lady Eleanor Egerton (1770–1846), whom he married in 1794, a year after the trophy’s completion. The other side depicts preparations for a horserace, the most culturally significant leisure activity enjoyed by aristocratic families in the 1700s. Grosvenor owned a number of famous horses and was likely awarded this trophy following a successful race. This is a lid to a trophy cup. See cover record.

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