The only known example of its type and date, this double cup is inscribed with the names of the Three Kings--"Caspar + Melchior + Waltazar"--and was probably used for traditional toasts associated with Epiphany. The heraldic devices are unidentified, but one identical to that on the upper section also appears on one of a set of beakers now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. The beakers in Nuremberg were excavated near the royal residence at Kuttenberg and can be associated with the court of Charles IV at Prague. The heraldic use of pointed hats strongly suggests that the cup was made for a Jewish patron. Said to have been excavated with a silver flagon and ewer, now in Stuttgart, The Cloisters double cup may have been hoarded during the anti-Semitic pogroms of 1349.
