Representative of Prince Albert’s fascination with the electrotyping process, this cup is an electrotype of an ancient silver original, excavated from the Casa dell'Argenteria at Pompeii in 1835. It is one of a set of four first-century silver cups, cast and chased in relief with scenes of centaurs and cupids. Benjamin Schlick, who was instrumental in procuring source material for Elkingtons in the 1840s, took a particular interest in the excavations in Italy and had moulds made from the cup at the time of its discovery. An example was shown by Elkingtons at the 1849 British Association for the Advancement of Science Exhibition in Birmingham. The design may also have been influenced by one of the cups in the Boscoreale treasure held in the Louvre Museum.

The piece was produced in the fashionable oxidised silver (silver treated with a metal sulphide dip to give it a blue-black or dark grey appearance). This technique was imported from France and was considered the best method for showing off the chased details of a piece of plate. According to the Illustrated London News, the process, ‘by producing a warm tone, and reducing the glitter of the metal, gives that display to light and shade, which only can develop the delicacies of such workmanship and design’.

In November 1843 Prince Albert made his first visit to Birmingham, despite the fears of his advisers that the city was in the hands of the Chartists. As he wrote to Baron Stockmar on 17 December, ‘I went … to Birmingham to see its manufactures. Sir James Graham and others had advised me strongly not to go … Nevertheless, I was received with indescribable enthusiasm’. His interest in the process continued from that date, resulting in several purchases and commissions.

Text from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love.