{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O94566"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O94566/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GE7041/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GE7041/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GE7041","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM7709","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY5136","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O94566/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O94566","accessionNumber":"CIRC.326&A-1959","objectType":"Cup and cover","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Racing cup and cover","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Smith, Stephen","id":"A8870"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silver parcel-gilt","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2013GE7041","2006AM7709","2018KY5136"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"67 (VA)","id":"THES49731"},"free":"","case":"6","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"67 (VA)","id":"THES49731"},"free":"","case":"6","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"cups","id":"AAT43202"}],[{"text":"Cover (of a racing trophy).","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1868-1869","earliest":"1868-05-29","latest":"1869-05-28"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"71.00","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"31.00","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"38.50","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Stephen Smith of Stephen Smith and Son, duty, sterling, date letter, leopard","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":"A8728"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""},{"content":"St. George and the Dragon depicted on the lid","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":"A8728"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""},{"content":"The finial on the cover in the form of St. George and the Dragon","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":"A8728"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Acquisition RF: 59 / 3380\n\nThis is a fine example of the change in the middle decades of the 19th-century from the traditional cup form to silver sculpture. Presentation pieces offered silversmiths the chance to display their technical wizardry. The Illustrated London News trumpeted in 1850, 'It is the art that ennobles the metal, not the metal the art ... even pewter or lead, upon which has been impressed the stamp of genius is beyond comparison, more worthwhile the racing for, than any tawdry work in silver whose true worth is at per ounce. Frosting, matting, parcel-gilding and burnishing have all been used to create contrasting surface textures on this cup.\n\nStephen Smith and Son's business descended from Digby Scott and Benjamin Smith, who along with Paul Storr, were the main suppliers to the great Regency firm of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell. The accuracy of the detailing on the foliage and horses heads and on the St. George and dragon finial, suggest a Rundells heritage. However, Stephen Smith's work was more restrained than that of his father, Benjamin Smith II, and his use of naturalism was more confined to decoration than form.\n\nVariations of the handles of this cup appear on British Grand Prix trophy, a more traditional cup form, and a similar trophy, the Monmouthshire Gun Club Challenge Cup, also made by Stephen Smith and Son.\n\nQuotes:\n\n'In no branch of the fine arts have the artists of this country made greater progress than in the art of modelling statuettes, and more particularly in modelling groups in which horses and animals are introduced ... It may indeed be called a national art, and a national manufacture, by which such beautiful and classic illustrations of ancient fables, and of historical events, have been made the means of decorating vases, cups and such like prizes'. Illustrated London News, 1850\n\n'It is time we had more variety and more utility introduced into these large and generally useless masses of silver, which are now simply memorials of the triumph of a particular racehorse.' H. Friswell, Art Journal, 1867","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Silver, parcel-gilt, London hallmarks for 1868-9, mark of Stephen Smith.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Patricia Wardle, Victorian Silver and Silver Plate, Sporting Glory, V&A, November 1992-January 1993"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.326-1959","CIRC.326A-1959"],"accessionNumberNum":"326","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1959,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Cup","Cover (of a racing trophy)."],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-30","recordCreationDate":"2004-03-03","availableToBook":false}}