The Lacock Cup
- Gallery: Room 40
- Culture: Late Medieval
- Made in: England
- Date: 15thC
- Object type: cup
- Materials: silver; gold
- Museum number: 2014,8002.1
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is The Lacock Cup, a rare and beautifully crafted silver-gilt drinking cup from 15th-century England. Its bowl is hemispherical, attached to a foot shaped like a trumpet. The lid is pointed, with a knop and a small silver wick extending upward. The cup’s surface is decorated with twisted rope patterns and openwork crenellations — symbols of richness and refinement in medieval metalwork.
The cup was originally used for feasting before becoming a chalice for communion at St Cyriac’s church in Lacock, Wiltshire. Few medieval cups of this kind have survived, mainly because others were melted down for their metal. This one, however, was treasured and preserved.
The Lacock Cup was acquired by the British Museum in 2014. It had been on loan for over fifty years, highlighting its lasting value to history and art.
See it in person
The Lacock Cup is on display in Room 40 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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