Standing cup with cover

Courting couples adorn the body of this cup in a park-like setting with trees and a fountain. Despite contemporary moralists’ warnings against promiscuous behavior, these scenes illustrate that interactions between men and women could be remarkably free. One couple amuses themselves with a swing. Another pair shares an intimate moment at one end of a seesaw. The woman on the other end of the seesaw falls off, revealing her bottom, while a female figure standing nearby shields with her hand the eyes of her partner preventing him from watching this indelicate situation. On a balustrade in the background, a winged cupid is ready to shoot his arrow.

The decoration is wheel engraved; the anonymous engraver used a lathe and held the goblet with both hands against the underside of a rotating wheel, coated with abrasive powder, to grind into the surface of the glass. Different-sized wheels were selected to create different effects.

Many drinking glasses and goblets were originally provided with a lid, but few of them have survived making this a welcome exception.