Double cups were used to drink all manner of toasts on special occasions such as betrothals, pledges of loyalty, and farewells, as well as on important days of the liturgical calendar, including saints' days, Pentecost Monday, New Year's Day, the eighth day after Easter, and Three Kings' Day. The present double cup may have been intended specifically for Epiphany, when, it was thought, special toasts would make women fertile and men virile. To emulate the gesture of the Three Kings themselves, elaborately decorated cups often were given as presents. In 1351, for example, King Charles IV, on whose lands and during whose lifetime this double cup assuredly was made, hosted a celebration in Prague of the marriage of Lazar, the leading financier of that imperial city.

The interior of each of the two vessels shows Jewish heroldic devices. Their inclusion on an object inscribed with the names of the three kings may be explained by the fact that, in the Middle Ages, Epiphany was celebrated outside a Christian context.

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