2-888-507 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Poison Cup - 16th Century, 1850. Item from an exhibition of ancient and mediaeval art the Society of Arts in London. '...the "Poison Cup"...is formed of green glass filagreed over with an outer case of silver gilt. The cover is surmounted by a crystal gem, which was considered to be a charm against treachery; "for if the draught contained in the cup were poisoned, the gem would infallibly have broken to pieces". This is the tradition, at all events, whence it derives its name, and which its present proprietor, the Master of Clare Hall, Cambridge, is of course, in duty bound, to hand down unquestioned to his successor, though we opine that this cup has been emptied many a time and oft with but small regard either to its own valuable properties or to the prescriptions of the learned physician, William Butler, by whom it was presented to the Hall in the reign of King James I'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.