Georgian Sterling Silver Baluster Mug – London 1760 – Later Cricket Club Trophy

Georgian Sterling Silver Baluster Mug – London 1760 – Later Cricket Club Trophy

Made for ale in Georgian England, it found a second purpose more than a century later as the first prize in a hundred-yard race.

Baluster silver mugs were a familiar form of Georgian drinking vessel, and the curved, tulip-like body was the fashionable form of the mid-eighteenth century. This one-pint mug was hallmarked in London for 1760–61, a date that falls at the turn from the reign of George II to that of George III. The maker’s mark is slightly worn but reads as S.W, attributed to the London silversmith Samuel Wood.

More than a century later, the mug found a second life as a sporting prize. An engraved inscription, set within a scrolled foliate frame, records its award by a cricket and athletic club. Part of it remains legible: “…Cricket & Athletic Club, 100 Yards Handicap, 1882, First Prize Presented by…”. A script monogram is engraved beside it.

The body rises from a stepped, spreading foot to a moulded rim. The double-scroll handle has a curled top, a spur on its outer curve and a scrolled lower terminal. The underside is hallmarked with the maker’s mark, the lion passant, the leopard’s head and the date letter E.

Very good antique condition. There are three small dings to the body, and the 1882 inscription has rubbed with age, so parts of it are no longer legible.

• Maker: Attributed to Samuel Wood, London (maker’s mark S.W)
• Assay: London, 1760–61
• Hallmarks: Maker’s mark, lion passant, leopard’s head, date letter E (Old English capital)
• Period: Mid-Georgian, at the turn from George II to George III
• Material: Sterling silver
• Form: One-pint baluster mug with double-scroll handle
• Inscription: Cricket and athletic club prize, 100 Yards Handicap, 1882
• Weight: 298 g
• Condition: Very good; three small dings; inscription rubbed
• Buyer profile: Collectors of Georgian silver, cricket and sporting memorabilia collectors, and anyone looking for a piece of English silver with a story

Collector Appeal

Georgian baluster mugs are a classic form of English silver, and an example hallmarked in 1760–61 sits at the meeting of two reigns. Its later life as an 1882 athletics prize gives it a second history, and its appeal reaches both silver collectors and lovers of English sporting history.

Silver keeps every chapter: the ale of the eighteenth century and the cheers of the nineteenth are both written into the same pint.