Antimonial cup

An antimonial cup was a small half-pint mug or cup cast in antimony popular in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. They were also known under the names "pocula emetica," "calices vomitorii," or "emetic cups", as wine that was kept in one for a 24‑hour period gained an emetic or laxative quality. The tartaric acid in the wine acted upon the metal cup and formed tartarised antimony.

Roman banquets of antiquity had goblets of specially prepared antimony-doctored wine. The antimonial cup would be employed in order to facilitate repeated doses of overeating by a followup of purging. Antimonial cups were used in England and America from earlier part of the 17th century and well into the 18th century. The spelling at the time was "Antimonyall Cupps." The meaning of the word "antimony" seems to have come from Basil Valentine and the name "Antimoine" meaning "against monks". The cups were common in monasteries.

Antimonial cups are extremely rare as only six are known in Great Britain, all in London, two in the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Leiden), one in Basel, Switzerland, one in Italy in the former papal palace in Ariccia and another one in London believed to have belonged to Captain James Cook, the English navigator. It is in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, London. The reason he had an antimonial cup is mostly of speculation, anything from stomach problems to scurvy. The provenance shows that it was acquired on loan in 1983 from Lady Rowley, daughter of the 8th Viscount Galway, Governor General of New Zealand. The family regarded it as a pewter communion cup and had owned it for many years. Lady Rowley's ancestor, General Robert Monckton, was General James Wolfe's second in command at Quebec. Cook was involved in the St Lawrence Expedition of 1759 under the joint command of Admiral Sir Edward Saunders and General Wolfe. The antimonial cup may have been bought by the 5th Viscount Galway (William George Monckton-Arundell) between 1815 and 1830 amongst Cook relics from a sale of the effects of Rear Admiral Isaac Smith, a nephew and companion of Mrs Elizabeth Cook (widow of James Cook).

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