This richly mounted 'Grace' Cup would have been passed around the dinner table after prayers had been said. It is a survivor from the English Tudor Court. The ivory bowl is said to have belonged to Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

, Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

, who was murdered in his cathedral in 1170. Such relics of England's favourite saint were treasured until the English Reformation

English Reformation

The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

. When the gilded silver mounts were commissioned in 1525, the engraver was instructed to incorporate the initials of TB and a mitre on the cover. These alternate with the pomegranate badge of Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...

. The cup was said to have been bequeathed to the queen by Sir Edward Howard

Edward Howard (admiral)

Sir Edward Howard, KG , son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Surrey and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney, and a younger brother of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. He was the first of the Howards to win fame as an admiral, participating in his first naval battle while in his teens...

 (d. 1513), High Admiral to Henry VIII. The vital role played by prints

Old master print

An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are...

 in the dissemination of Renaissance styles to Northern Europe is revealed in some of the ornamentation on the cup which, like Henry VIII's writing desk

Henry VIII's writing desk

Henry VIII's writing desk was made in about 1525-6, it is a product of the royal workshops and is lavishly embellished with ornamental motifs introduced to Britain by continental artists...

, derives from the work of Hans Burgkmair

Hans Burgkmair

Hans Burgkmair the elder was a German painter and printmaker in woodcut.Burgkmair was born in Augsburg, the son of painter Thomas Burgkmair and his son, Hans the Younger, became one too. From 1488 he was a pupil of Martin Schongauer in Colmar, who died during his two years there, before Burgkmair...

. The cast marks and sheaves taken from an engraving

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

 by the artist are the earliest example of Renaissance influence in English goldsmiths' work. After Catherine of Aragon's death in 1536 the cup was returned to the Howard family, who were renowned both as devout Roman Catholics and as art collectors. It descended through successive generations of the family until it was brought by the Museum in 1931.