Grace Cup

[1] According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the Grace Cup is still seen at the Lord Mayor's feasts, at College, and occasionally in private banquets.

[2][failed verification][3][4] Oxford's Oriel College possesses Sanford and Heywood grace cups, dated 1654-55 and 1669–70 in its Buttery Plate collection.

[6] 'Grace' cups were passed round when a traditional grace (a prayer of thanksgiving) was said to give thanks for the food eaten.

Robert Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) described their use as "a corollary to conclude the feast and continue their mirth, a grace cup came in to cheer their hearts and they drank healths to one another again and again".

The proper way of drinking the cup observed at the Lord Mayor's banquet or City companies' is to have a silver bowl with two handles and a napkin.