Because most wine cups of this period have ecclesiastical provenance, "we" (the greater community of silver connoisseurs) typically describe them as communion cups. However, in his Collector's Dictionary, Michael Clayton discusses the arrival of silver cups for the personal consumption of wine in the latter part of the 16th century, and in the absence of a paten and/or church engraving, there is little to say definitively that this cup was intended for religious rather than secular use.

In either case, examples from this early period are rare. This cup, while unmarked, shows attractive and recognizable features of Elizabethan silver, including stamped moldings around the stem and a band of stylized foliage engraved around the bowl.