Bird of prey cup

Bird of prey cup, Germany, around 1600, Cast, raised and chased partially gilded silver (parcel-gilt), carved coconut shell and carved semiprecious stones. Museum no. 61:1, 2-2008

Drinking vessels in the form of owls and birds of prey were popular in German-speaking lands during the 16th and 17th centuries. On this example, the coconut shell has been carved with feathers and the silver mounts have a similar naturalistic effect.

Stork tongs

John Wren, stork tongs, about 1780. Museum no. 1707-1944

This delicate pair of tongs would probably have been used either as nappy tongs or to thread delicate ribbon through baby clothes. The pincers are constructed as a witty pun on the stork’s snapping beak.

Cow cream jug

John Schuppe, cow cream jug, 1759-60. Museum no. M.1687-1944

The silver cow, with its tail as a handle, makes an amusing container for cream. Almost all the cow creamers in existence have a comic, almost cartoon-like appearance and were made by John Schuppe, a Dutchman who settled in London. Another animal form, a wildly out of proportion fly, appears as a handle on this cow’s back. The creamers appeared in a variety of finishes. This one has the cow’s hide etched onto the surface of the silver.

Salt holder

John Bridge of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, salt holder, London, 1825-6. Museum no. 24-1964

This salt holder shows the impact of naturalism on 19th-century design, which reached its height in the 1850s. The mould in which the silver was cast was taken from a real sea-urchin. The love of nature had romantic and religious resonances, the writer John Ruskin commenting that 'all noble ornamentation is the expression of man's delight in God's work'.

Plaque from a cabinet

Johann Andreas Thelot, plaque from a cabinet, 1684. Museum no. 248-1956

The hind quarters of the horse on the left stick out of the plaque, catching the light and directing your eyes straight into the scene in a clever trick of perspective. Other horses, pulling a chariot containing a victorious Roman emperor and general, have been compressed to appear further away.

It takes great skill to produce high relief decoration on an essentially flat object like a plaque. The design for this plaque would have been pricked out on the surface of a flat sheet, then the sheet turned over and the basic pattern hammered out from the back. The detail was worked in from the front using a variety of hammers and punches, with the sheet resting on pitch to hold it steady.

Carrington Cup

Kevin Coates, the Carrington Cup, 1987. Museum no. 64-1988

The Director of the V&A, Sir Roy Strong, commissioned this cup for Lord Carrington, the Chairman of the Museum’s Trustees. The mythical beast that supports it is a gryphon, with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. This creature was carefully chosen. It was a guardian of treasure, and Lord Carrington was a guardian of the wealth of treasure that is the V&A’s collection.