{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O93236"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O93236/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL0322/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL0322/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AL0322","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O93236/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O93236","accessionNumber":"2117:1, 2-1855","objectType":"Cup and cover","titles":[{"title":"cup","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Coconut mounted in elaborately chased silver bands, the lid surmounted by a figure of a warrior holding a shield engraved with a crest in the form of a finger ring. The coconut stands on a chased bell shaped foot and stand. The coconut is carved with scenes from three stories of Classical mythology: Diana, in her bath, changes Actaeon the hunter into a stag; Venus watches her lover Adonis die after he is gored by a wild pig (his mother Myrrah is depicted to his right as she is transformed into a myrrh tree); 'the Judgement of Paris' - when Paris, a prince of Troy, asked by Jupiter to choose the fairest among Venus, Minerva and Juno, chooses the goddess Venus and hands her a golden apple, engraved 'to the Fairest'.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"},{"text":"husk","id":"AAT11890"}],"techniques":[{"text":"chased","id":"AAT54016"},{"text":"cast","id":"x32615"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Coconut, carved, and mounted with chased, cast and engraved silver.","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006AL0322"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"69","id":"THES49729"},"free":"","case":"4","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"69","id":"THES49729"},"free":"","case":"4","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"cups","id":"AAT43202"}],[{"text":"cover (closure)","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Amsterdam","id":"x28722"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1568","earliest":"1568-01-01","latest":"1568-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with funds from the Capt. H. B. Murray Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"9.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"11/10/2012","earliest":"2012-10-11","latest":"2012-10-11"},"part":"across foot","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"32.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"11/10/2012","earliest":"2012-10-11","latest":"2012-10-11"},"part":"Base of foot to top of finial on lid","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"The rim marked with the town mark for Amsterdam, a date-letter 'A', probably for the year 1568, a crowned 'V' - Dutch tax mark for the period 1813-1893. Four zig-zag assay marks on the foot; two zig-zag assay marks on the lid.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"under lip","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""},{"content":"The initials 'W. T. S' carved on the rim of the bath in the scene from the myth of Diana and Actaeon.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"The Museum purchased the cup at the sale of the collection of Ralph Bernal, auctioned at Christie's London in 1855, where it was lot 1409.\n\n<u>Provenance</u>\r\n\r\nRalph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.\r\n\r\nIn 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.\r\n\r\nWhen Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Cup with lid, coconut and silver mounts, Dutch (Amsterdam), around 1568, the carved cup with monogram 'W.T.S' of unidentified carver.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Oman, Charles, <u>The Golden Age of Dutch Silver</u>, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1953"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Schroder, Timothy. <u>The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver</u>. Los Angeles: LACMA, 1988."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Filedt Kok, J.P., W. Halsema-Kubes and W. Th. Kloek, eds. <u>Kunst voor de beeldenstorm. Noordnederlandse kunst 1525-1580</u>. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 13 September - 23 November 1986. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1986."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"W.Th. Kloek, W. Halsema-Kubes and R.J. Baarsen, translated by Patricia Wardle, <u>Art before the iconoclasm : northern Netherlandish art, 1525- 1580</u>. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1986.\n[Published in English as an introduction (vol. I) to the exhibition of the same title in the Rijksmuseum, 13 September-23 November 1986.]"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Glanville, Philippa. Exhibition review: 'Art before iconoclasm: the decorative arts'. In: <u>The Burlington Magazine</u>, Vol. 129, No. 1008 (March 1987), pp. 202-204."},{"reference":{"text":"Christie and Manson, <i>Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, from the Byzantine Period to that of Louis Seize, of that Distinguished Collector, Ralph Bernal</i> (London, 1855)","id":"AUTH403540"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Slave Registers: Jamaica: St. Ann. (1) Indexed, 1832, T 71/49","id":"AUTH403536"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Hannah Young, ''The perfection of his taste': Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in 19th-century Britain', <i>Cultural and Social History</i>, 19:1 (2022), pp. 19-37","id":"AUTH403542"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"","id":""}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Actaeon","id":"N158"},{"text":"Paris","id":"N55"},{"text":"Diana","id":"N145"},{"text":"Venus","id":"N25"},{"text":"Minerva","id":"N23"},{"text":"Juno","id":"N24"},{"text":"Myrrha","id":"N374"},{"text":"Adonis","id":"N159"}],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Cup and cover. Cocoa-nut, in silver mounting, carved in three panels, with the legend of Diana and Actaeon, and other classical subjects; the mounting chased with cartouche work, masks and fruits surmounted by a statuette of a warrior holding a shield, on which is a finger ring. Dutch. About 1580. H. 12½ in., diam. 3 7/8 in. Bought (Bernal coll.), 19<i>l</i> 10s. 2117-'55.\n[Note the label has been amended in 1904: 'chased' deleted from the description and 'repoussé' written above; note added: 'Amsterdam Hall-mark. Date-letter A'.]","date":{"text":"1855","earliest":"1855-01-01","latest":"1855-12-31"}},{"text":"Silver Gallery:\r\nThis coconut is elaborately carved with the scenes from the mythological stories of Diana and Actaeon, Daphne and Apollo and the Judgement of Paris; it is signed on the edge of the bath in the Diana panel with the artist's initials, WTF.","date":{"text":"26/11/2002","earliest":"2002-11-26","latest":"2002-11-26"}}],"partNumbers":["2117:1-1855","2117:2-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2117","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Cup","cover (closure)"],"assets":["2019LW9938","2019LV8750"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-18","availableToBook":false}}