A WILLIAM IV SILVER-GILT WAGER-CUP

A wager-cup in the form of a maiden, or junffrauenbecher, developed in Germany during the sixteenth century. As Hannelore Muller has remarked, "... they turned the solemn rite of drinking into an amusing game. The elegant lady's skirt can, if the small figure is turned upside down, be used as a drinking vessel in addition to the tumbler that she holds aloft. A favourite joke was to invite a bridal couple to perform the feat of draining both vessels simultaneously without spilling a drop" (The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: European Silver, London, 1986, p. 202). Wager-cups enjoyed a small revival in England in the nineteenth century though surviving examples from this period are rare.