A Dutch silver windmill cup

A Dutch silver windmill cup

The cup engraved with flowers and foliage above flower bandwork, the lower rim of the cup with engraved letters L.B.H.B, the stem with three cast fish supporting the realistically-shaped windmill with on the back a blowpipe, stairs and clock whereby the hands are moving when the sails are in motion.

Amongst the Dutch silver wager cups which were produced from the late 16th Century until the early 18th Century, the so called windmill cups were the most popular. The feet of these cups are in the form of the top part of a windmill and therefore they cannot be set down until they have been drained. The cup itself, usually divided into horizontal bands, might be decorated with engraved strapwork, flowers, drinking-songs, names or monograms.

Before drinking the cup one had to blow through the blowpipe on the backside, by which the sails were set in motion. At the same time a hand was set in motion indicating a figure from one to twelve. The hand indicated the number of beakers the drinker had to empty if he did not empty the cup before the sails stopped.
This windmill cup is a very early example: the oldest extant Dutch windmill cup was made in Leeuwarden by Cornelis Floris around 1580.