Antique Silver Cups
Silver cups cover everything drunk from or awarded: egg cups, christening mugs, trophies, goblets, quaichs, tot cups and the little cups screwed onto hip flasks.
Antique Silver Cups
The heading holds several forms rather than one. Egg cups and trophy cups are the two largest groups in equal measure, followed by hip and spirit flasks with their detachable cups, then christening cups and mugs. Goblets, beakers, quaichs, porringers, tot cups and loving cups make up a large combined minority.
Solid and plated pieces sit side by side. Around two hundred titles say sterling and a further hundred and twenty say solid, while ninety say plated and sixteen name Old Sheffield plate, which turns up on loving cups and communion goblets. Assay towns named in titles are led by London, Sheffield and Birmingham, with Chester, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle as scarce single entries.
The bulk of what you'll meet is a small English hallmarked cup of the late Victorian to inter-war decades. The dated field spans 1700 to 1960 and the profile is broad rather than peaked: Victorian leads, with the 1920s, 1910s, 1900s and 1930s close behind. Where a title states an assay year it's usually precise; where it gives only a reign, the decade stays unresolved.
The forms carry their purposes with them. Christening cups were given at baptism and are often engraved, two-handled cups were awarded as sporting prizes, and silver egg cups belong to the later table-service tradition, commonly sold with a spoon, sometimes with a napkin ring, in a fitted case.
Where The Range Splits
Metal sets the first division. Hallmarked silver runs through the upper reaches of the category, while plated trophies and plated egg cruets gather in the lower and middle bands. Weight compounds it: titles quote gram figures from twenty-odd gram miniatures up through the 350g to 450g pieces to a two-handled cup over a kilo, and a gilt champagne cooler stated at 7.9kg stands at the extreme.
Additions lift a cup above the plain version of itself. A cover, present in sixteen titles, and gilt or parcel-gilt finish, in twenty-six, both read upward. So does completeness: cased egg cup and spoon sets, sets of six tot cups or goblets, and cased collapsible cups all sit above the single loose cup.
Trophies divide on what they say. One naming a golf club, a regatta, a coursing or pigeon club, a horse race or a hole-in-one occupies the upper trophy band, while a cup described only as a silver trophy with nothing attached to it sits low. Date pulls hard at the other end of the timeline, with the 17th and early 18th century entries, dated from 1670 through the 1690s and into the 1720s and 1730s, well above the general run.
Antique Silver Cups Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for silver cups, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Dates given for silver cups on Sellingantiques run from 1700 to 1960, though many titles carry only a reign, like Victorian or Georgian.
The Antique Silver Cups Glossary
- Sterling or solid
- Silver of the 925 standard rather than plate. More titles use one of these two words than any other description of metal.
- Plated and Old Sheffield plate
- Silver over a base metal. Ninety titles say plated; sixteen name Old Sheffield plate, which here appears on loving cups and communion goblets.
- Assay town
- The office that hallmarked the piece. London, Sheffield and Birmingham dominate the titles, with Chester, Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow occasional.
- Britannia standard
- The higher 958 silver standard. A handful of titles use it, mostly for porringers and early cups, including a bleeding bowl of 1702.
- Quaich
- Shallow Scottish drinking bowl with two flat lugs. Twenty-one titles, including a barrel-shaped one and several planished Arts and Crafts examples.
- Stirrup cup
- Footless cup for drinking mounted, often modelled as an animal head. Fox, bull, bear and pheasant heads appear.
Antique Silver Cups: Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a silver cup here?
Egg cups and trophy cups are the two biggest single forms, at roughly an eighth of listings each. Hip and spirit flasks with detachable cups follow, then christening cups and mugs.
After that come goblets, beakers, chalices, tot and shot cups, quaichs, porringers, tankards, loving cups and tygs. It's a family of drinking and presentation vessels rather than one standard shape.
Are all of these solid silver?
No. Around two hundred titles say sterling and another hundred and twenty say solid, but ninety say plated and sixteen specify Old Sheffield plate.
The plated pieces are numerous, not scarce. They run to trophies, egg cruets, loving cups and communion goblets.
How old are silver cups on Sellingantiques?
The dated field spans 1700 to 1960, with 453 of 738 listings carrying a clean year. Victorian is the largest single label, with the 1920s, 1910s, 1900s and 1930s not far behind.
The earliest entries reach back further than the dated field suggests: a Nuremberg beaker given as circa 1670, a London porringer of 1694, a Britannia standard cup of 1698.
Many of the remaining titles rest on reign labels such as Georgian, Edwardian or simply 19th Century.
Why are egg cups in this category?
Silver egg cups belong to the later table-service tradition and were often given as gifts, which puts them alongside christening pieces in use.
They turn up singly, in pairs, in cruet sets for four and six, and in cased sets with a spoon and sometimes a napkin ring. Novelty versions include an 'Acorn', golfers, duck egg cups, a three-legged example and a Victorian carousel.
What makes a trophy cup stand out?
An identified occasion. Titles naming a golf club, regatta, rowing or tennis event, coursing or pigeon club, rifle shooting, harriers or a horse race sit in the upper trophy band.
A cup carrying no attribution sits low. Size, a cover and a gilt finish all pull the same way as a named event.
Do unusual forms appear in this category?
They do, in ones and twos. A coconut cup with Old Sheffield mounts, a nautilus shell cup, a horn and silver hunting beaker, an agate cup with silver-gilt mounts and an Irish mether have all passed through.
Wager or marriage cups appear too, the figural sort with a windmill or a skirted figure and two drinking vessels. A silver-plate bi-plane carrying four egg cups is about as far from a plain beaker as the category goes.