[1][2] The chalice was a donation by King Bagrat III and his mother, Queen Gurandukht, to the new church at Bedia, which was completed in 999.

[1] The base of the vessel was subsequently lost and restored in the 16th century at the behest of Germane Chkhetidze, Metropolitan Bishop of Bedia, as mentioned in a Georgian inscription.

The item was preserved in the sacristy of the Ilori Church, when the historian Dimitri Bakradze visited it in 1865 and reported the danger of its being lost.

The Georgian-language inscription[n 1] just below the rim, in finely carved asomtavruli script, mentions King Bagrat and Queen Gurandukht.

[1] The Bedia chalice is notable for the orderly and rhythmic composition and decorative details which are endogenously Georgian, but exhibit some stylistic affinities with the contemporary Byzantine ivory icons and enameled chalices in the Treasury of San Marco, Venice.