[1] Since at least the late 19th century, it has been attributed with a supernatural ability to heal those who drink from it and traditionally believed to be fashioned from a piece of the True Cross.

[3][4] Juliette Wood, a folklorist specialising in medieval folklore and Celtic mythology, has stated that there is "no credible reference" to the cup prior to the end of the 19th century and "no mention of possible connections to the Grail until 1905.

Specialists from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales used the opportunity to examine the cup and concluded that it dated from the Late Middle Ages and was carved from wych elm.

The minutes of the meeting at which the cup was first exhibited record that George Powell introduced the object and gave an account of it being "preserved for many years past at Nanteos", having formerly been in the possession of the abbey at Strata Florida (Welsh: Ystrad Fflur, "Vale of Flowers").

The veneration accorded to it in the neighbourhood, and, still more decidedly, a regard for their own health and that of their families, would prompt the country-people to bring some pressure to bear on those who would otherwise have destroyed it, to secure this valuable relic.

[14][15] A drawing made around the same time by Worthington George Smith shows the cup in the same damaged condition as it exists today, held together with 2 metal staples.

[16] Wood found that prior to 1878 "evidence for a relic at Nanteos [was] lacking" and that it had not appeared in Samuel Rush Meyrick's survey, published as The History and Antiquities of the County of Cardiganshire, in 1809.

[17] Richard Barber, a historian specialising in Arthurian legends, has also proposed that the cup was probably discovered at the site of the abbey in the 19th century.

Sir S. R. Meyrick does not mention it in his Hist of Cardiganshire (1810), nor, as far as I am aware, do any of the innumerable English tourists, but extraordinary tales have been told (since about 1836) of the healing powers supposed to be possessed by this fragment of what is probably an ancient Mazer Bowl.

In 1890, the North Wales Chronicle newspaper mentioned the cup on its Notices page, reproducing the same details that had been reported in Archaeologia Cambrensis in 1878.

Its healing virtues in certain cases of female disorder were in great repute, and when all hopes from doctors had been given up the sufferer had only to take all nourishment, wet and dry, out of it for a few days to ensure a complete cure.

[24]Wood reports a variation of this story in which the cup is taken by seven monks from Glastonbury to Strata Florida during the Dissolution and entrusted by the last survivor to the Stedman family.

[25] The Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII had taken place between 1536 and 1541, over a century before the establishment of the Nanteos estate by Colonel John Jones, a Royalist during the English Civil War and High Sheriff of Cardiganshire for 1665.

"[22] On 23 June 1909, Evans held an event at Strata Florida advertised as "A Day at the Abbey ('The Westminster of Wales')", which was attended by 350 people despite heavy rain.

Evans had persuaded the Powell family of Nanteos to exhibit the Cup at the event and, to great astonishment and delight, when it was removed from its case and laid on a table in full public view a brilliant ray of sunshine broke through the clouds and the rain stopped.

The Commissioner for Monuments in Wales examined the piece and said it was exactly the right size and shape to be a mazer bowl, a type of medieval vessel, that it was wych elm and was from the 14th century.

[8] West Mercia Police gave few details of the recovery except to say that they were contacted by an anonymous source and the cup was subsequently "handed to officers 'on neutral ground' in a pre-arranged meeting".