2-913-969 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Bacon Cup, 1854. 'This elegant and interesting relic of bygone times was made from the Great Seal of England for Sir Nicholas Bacon, knight, Lord Keeper, father of the great Lord Bacon. Sir Nicholas left this Cup, as an heirloom, to his second son, Sir Nathaniel Bacon, of Stiffkey (or, as it was anciently called, Stewkey), county Norfolk, KB., one of the most distinguished painters of his time. It is silver-gilt: its dimensions are eleven inches in height, and diameter of the bowl seven inches, and on it are engraved the arms of the Bacon family, and the following inscription: "A thyrde bowle made of the Greate Seale of Englande, and left by Syr Nycholas Bacon, Knygt, Lorde Keeper, as an heyrelome to his bowse of Stewkey, 1574". The motto of the Bacon family, "Mediocri Firma," is on the cover, which is surmounted by the crest, a boar passant ermine'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.