Modern history: Silver

During the 16th century and before, glass was a very highly prized commodity and wine would normally have been consumed from silver or silver gilt goblets. Early wine cups—often with a cover—were invariably heavily decorated and were considered status symbols. Many that remain are so large that their use must have been communal. Smaller cups for individual use date back to the Middle Ages but by the 1570s a standard pattern of a wide, shallow bowl on a baluster stem emerged. The making of silver drinking cups appears to have almost stopped by about the 1650s, probably due to the impact of Venetian glass and the subsequent burgeoning of glass-making in England.