Unusual Artifacts: A German Parrot Cup, 1620

Silver Gilt Cup
Germany, 1620
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

 

While this may seem an unusual and rather clumsy vessel to us, many German cups of the Sixteenth Century took the form of a bird with a removable head.  This was an art form which continued well into the Seventeenth Century. 

In this example, the chased silver-gilt cup is shaped like a parrot which perches on a whistle which was employed as part of a complicated drinking game which involved simulating a parrot's call.