Accession Number

1986.008.0008

Alternate object names

Renaissance 'Poison' Cup;'Poison' Cup;Cup

Creation Date

circa 1600

Description

A gold chalice recovered from the wreck of the galleon Atocha is popularly known as a “poison cup,” but it is a type of drinking vessel known more formally as a bernegal. The circular form has a wide border below the rim that is chased with stylized, scrolling vines interspersed by a dolphin, a dragon, a lion, a rabbit, a phoenix, and a raven. Below the border are twenty-four vertical lobes, each chased with floral decoration. The cup sits on a similarly chased, molded spool foot. Two S-form, stylized dolphin handles face each other from opposing sides of the cup. Around the interior, just below the rim, are the remains of twenty settings for gemstones (likely emeralds). The bottom of the interior is set with an ovoid, open-frame mount. The piece is of South American manufacture, evidenced by the multiple tax stamps indicating the proper export levies had been paid before the transatlantic voyage.

The vessel is a “poison cup” because it once held in its central interior mount a bezoar stone intended to absorb poison from drink. In the seventeenth century, poison offered a way to eliminate rivals with very low risk of detection. Bezoars are the gallstones of calcium and hair found in the alimentary tracts of ruminants such as deer, sheep, llamas and antelope. In seventeenth century thinking, bezoars were an antidote to poison, and modern science suggests that they were somewhat effective against arsenic. Bezoars were quite valuable, and additional, unmounted stones (likely from South American llamas or alpacas) were found on Atocha.

Exhibition Label

Case/Object Caption (2023):

Drinking Vessel (Bernegal)
Gold (Peru, c.1600)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0008

Most bernegals were worked in silver but, in the opulent world of Spanish Peru, they were made of gold, which was in plentiful supply. Although depicted in contemporary paintings, this bernegal is a unique survivor of this style, having spent 400 years hidden below the ocean.

The interior rim holds settings for numerous precious stones, now lost to the sea. Deep in the bowl of the cup is a basket, designed to hold a bezoar stone. Bezoars have the remarkable property of neutralizing arsenic, a poison often used at the time. It was not uncommon for the heirs or rivals of a powerful aristocrat to remove him or her using poison. As a result, many wealthy people carried bezoar pendants, or wore them set in rings, or embedded them in a wine cup like this one.

Bezoar Stones
Calcareous deposits possibly from the digestive tracts of llamas, c.1600
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0605b-e
 
Previous Exhibition Label:

Poison Cup & Bezoar Stones
Recovered from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha
Gift of Jamestown Treasure Salvor Inc. 
1986.008.008
This gold vessel (bernegal) was recovered squashed and meticulously restored by a conservator. A faux emerald was found in one of the 20 interior settings. The exterior bowl is etched with intricate floral and animal designs as well as serpent-shaped handles. 

It has an interior setting to hold a bezoar stone, the gallstone from a llama or goat. Bezoar stones were believed to be a universal antidote to poisons. In fact the word is derived from the Persian
pad-zahr, which means "antidote". Modern research reveals the bezoar stone, made up of hair and calcium, contains a protein that bonds with arsenate proving that the stones would effectively protect the drinker from arsenic poisonings, which was the most common poison used in European courts. These stones were rare and expensive items worth more than ten times their weight in gold.