Tapering cylindrical, on three ball feet, the silver-gilt body applied with silver pierced and chased detachable sleeve chased with three oval vignettes, one depicting classical ruins and two seated figures, one with figures beside a stream, the third with a man in a boat rowing past a cottage, interspersed with panels of acanthus scrolls, the cover with similar detachable acanthus foliage panel and ball finial, on later wood plinth with silver plaque engraved with Latin inscription and with later F. B. Thomas and Company wood case fitted with brass plaque engraved 'The Cromwell Cup', marked underneath body, on cover and on finial calyx
10⁵⁄₈ in. (27 cm.) high
48 oz. 10 dwt. (1,510 gr.)
The Latin inscription reads,
'ANNO SACRO MDCXLVI HENRICU IRETON
URSULA DOMINE WHORWOOD OB HOSPITIUM
MUNERI NISIT SCYPHUN AB ILLO MAGNO
OLIVARIO CROMWELL SOCERO SUO SIBI DATUM',
which translates as 'In the Sacred year 1646 Henry Ireton sent this goblet to Ursula, Lady Whorwood because of her hospitality/friendship from the Great and famous Oliver Cromwell, given to his father-in-law'.

By tradition the Whorwood family until the death of the Rev. Thomas Henry Whorwood (1812-1884), a codicil in his 1881 will bequeathed it to ‘To Lord Sherborne and his heirs my ‘Oliver Cromwell’ cup presented to our common ancestor, Dame Ursula Whorwood, for an heirloom’, superseded by a later codicil in 1884 and judged in court to pass to his residuary legatee, his butler, 'My faithful friend and servant' to whom he left 'all my plate',
Charles Rixon (b.1850), presumably from whom acquired by,
Frederick George Dutton, 5th Baron Sherborne (1840-1920), by descent to,
Ralph Stawell Dutton, 8th Baron Sherborne (1898-1985), of Hinton Ampner House, Hampshire, then under the terms of the will of Edward Dutton, 4th Baron Sherborne (1813-1919) to his kinsman,
Michael John James George Robert Howard, 21st Earl of Suffolk and 14th Earl of Berkshire (1935-2022), then by descent.

J. H. Parker, A Guide to the Architectural Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Oxford, Oxford, 1846, an annotated copy in the collection of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, includes a photograph of the cup, [Bodleian Library G.A. Oxon 4° 697].
The Will of the Rev. Thomas Henry Whorwood D.D. (1812-1884), dated 1881, published in L. M. Simes, Trusts and Estates I: Cases and Materials, Books 1-5. p. 169,
A Letter from Frederick George Dutton, 5th Baron Sherborne, published in Notes and Queries, 1899, 9th series, vol. iv., p. 484.
L. Willoughby, The Connoisseur, ‘Sherborne House, Part II’, February 1912, vol. XXXII, no. 126, p. 79, illustrated.
M. D. Lobel ed., A History of the County of Oxford: Bullingdon Hundred, vol. 5, London, 1957, n. 43.

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Lot Essay

By family tradition the cup was presented to Ursula, Lady Whorwood (1590-1653) by Major General Henry Ireton (1611-1651) who married the daughter of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, however, the cup dates from 1689-1692, therefore this must be discounted as a later invention. Adolf Gaap became a master of the Augsburg Goldsmiths' Guild in 1664 and died in 1695 and is known for his sleeve beakers such as the present example. If the Whorwood provenance is believed in part the date of the cup would suggest it might have once belonged to Jane Whorwood (b.c.1685), who married Christopher Bond (1682-1739). Their daughter Jane (c.1712-1776) married James Lenox Naper, later Dutton (c.1713-1776) of Sherborne Park.

The Latin inscription on the base plaque, inscribed circa 1850, was composed by Dr Martin Routh (1755-1854), President of Magdalen College for 63 years, according to notes left by a Rev. T. H. Whorwood before his death. The inscription is recorded in a Guardbook bound in dark green covers, entitled “Routh Inscriptions” on the spine, dated 1789-1856, now in the collection of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1884. (Mss. PR/30/1/MS4/1, no. 61), "No. 61: Inscription (in Latin) for a cup presented to Elizabeth Whorwood in 1646 by Henry Ireton."