Two-handled cups such as this were prestige objects in the seventeenth century. They were intended for communal drinking - to be passed from hand to hand - and were often given as gifts on important occasions. This cup was presented by three citizens of Oxford to the Mayor and Bailiffs, to be used by the Worshipful Company of Taylors in the city, presumably for drinking toasts at their company dinners.

The cup is embossed (the pattern is hammered out from behind) with decoration in the so-called Dutch Floral Style, which was popular throughout the whole of Western Europe in the seventeenth century. The museum has examples in its collections ranging from Scandinavia to Portugal. The decoration celebrates the popularity of the new flowering bulbs which were being imported from Turkey and central Asia. You can see narcissi, anemones and tulips on this cup.