This cup was recovered in 1985 from the Spanish galleon,
Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sunk off the Florida Keys in 1622. The silver
cargo of the Atocha, thought to have been made by Spanish silversmiths in Bogota,
Cartagena and Lima, has yielded new information on the marks used in those
cities. The previously unrecorded mark on the present cup, a crowned
pomegranate (granada), refers to the colony of New Granada, now Colombia, and
has recently been identified as that of Bogota.

The boss in the interior of this cup was probably originally
brightly enamelled and may have served, along with the bright convex flutes of
the sides, to show the clarity of the wine, much in the same was as a raised
boss in the bottom of a traditional wine taster does. Nevertheless these raised
bosses ultimately derive from the often elaborate cage-type bosses intended to
hold a bezoar stone in the so-called "Poison Cups" of the Renaissance
period. One such gold cup, recovered from the wreck of the Atocha in 1973, is
on display at the Maritime Heritage Society in Key West, Florida. Another
fluted cup with re-arranged stem and bezoar stone is in the Art Institute of
Chicago. For a discussion of these cups and their possible function, see
Christopher Hartop, "New Light on Spanish Seventeenth Century
Silver," The Silver Society Journal, I, 1990, pp. 5-12.

A very similar lobed cup appears in Juan Bautista de
Espinosa's Still Life with Silver-gilt Salvers, illustrated in Hartop, op.
cit., fig. 1. Another cup of the same form, described as a catavinos and
hallmarked for Zaragoza, is illustrated in A. Fernandez et al., Encidopedia de
la Plata Espanola y Virreinal Americana, 1985, p. 432, pl. 1543.

The mark is illustrated in Cristina Esteras Martin, Marcas
de Plateria Hispanoamericana, 1992, nos. 348 and 349, pp. 154-155.

New Granada contributed each year to the Treasure Fleet, the organized system of convoys begun in 1564 to ferry gold, silver, and exotic goods from the Spanish Colonies back to Seville, the designated trading port on the Spanish mainland; this trade made Spain the wealthiest country in Europe. New Granada (Colombia) contributed in particular gold and emeralds, sent out from the port of Cartagena; this port also served to export silver from the mines of Potosí, in modern Bolivia.

The fleet also carried passengers, and when this cup was found in 1985, it was part of a “single conglomerate of concreted material… a small group of silver and silver-gilt pieces of exceptional quality... suggesting that they were the personal effects of one passenger.”[3] Seven of the pieces, including this one, were struck with the pomegranate mark of Bogotá, suggesting that this was the origin of the passenger, perhaps a Spanish official returning to his homeland after a lucrative posting, or a wealthy Colonial merchant traveling to the mother country.

In the year 1622, the Spanish Mainland Fleet stopped twice in Cartagena (Colombia), before and after traveling to Portobelo, Panama, where they arrived May 24. Here the ships picked up the fortune in bullion shipped up the Pacific from Lima, then carried overland across the isthmus. However, this year the fleet was forced to wait weeks before the treasure from the Pacific Fleet arrived; it was not until mid July that they were able to leave, worryingly behind schedule already. On July 22 the fleet was once again in Cartagena, loading gold and tobacco, and probably the owner of this Colombian-marked cup. The convoy then sailed to Havana, where they joined the New Spain fleet, coming from Veracruz (Mexico), and prepared to cross the Atlantic.

As the cargo and passengers were readied for the final stage of the trip, the cup and its owner were on Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a new galleon finished only in 1620 by Havana shipbuilder Alono Ferrera. She was rated 550 tons, with an overall length of 112 feet, a bean (width) of 34 feet, and a draft (depth below water) of just 14 feet. Into this space was put a cargo including 24 tons of silver bullion, 1,200 pounds of worked silver, 125 gold bars and disks, indigo, tobacco, copper, and over 200 sailors. The ship was assigned the important role of almiranta, bringing up the rear of the fleet under the command of a Vice-Admiral, and this prestige and the security of its 20 bronze cannon reassured the 48 passengers listed sailing on her, including the Governor of Cuzco, wealthy merchants from Peru, an Augustinian monk who was the “King’s Visitor”, and an infantry captain with his troupe – though no one with an immediately identifiable Bogotá connection.

It was, however, the end of August before they could leave, dangerously into hurricane season. After watching the weather, the 28 ships of the fleet left Havana on Sunday, September 4th, 1622, sailing out into the Straits of Florida. By the following day, the ships were already fighting a fierce hurricane. Strong northeast winds countered the north-flowing current to create huge waves. The flagship and much of the fleet were able to ride the wind west past the last of the Keys into the calmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but the heavily-laden Nuestra Señora de Atocha was less agile, and carried by wind and wave was ground onto the coral reefs. With the passengers and many of the sailors below-decks with hatches battened against the storm, 260 people died; only five survived, three crewmen and two black slaves, clinging to the stump of the mast above the waves until the following morning.

Given that the Atocha and another lost ship, the Margarita, carried the bulk of the fleet’s treasure, the Spanish attempted to salvage the galleon, but in 56 feet of water were defeated by the same tightly-secured hatches which had been the doom of its passengers. After another hurricane a month later, even the site of the wreck was lost for over 350 years.

Mel Fisher arrived in Florida in 1963, a treasure diver obsessed with lost Spanish galleons. He started with wrecks from the 1715 Treasure Fleet, then began looking for the Atocha. Despite some tantalizing finds in 1973, it was not until July 1985 that he found the “motherlode” of the hull of the Atocha. This cup was featured the following year in a National Geographic special on Mel Fisher and his finds. As well it should be, for the piece, this rare survival of early 17th century Colonial South America, is - except for the loss of enamel to the central boss - almost untouched despite three and a half centuries under the ocean.

[1] The Colonial Andes, p. 220.
[2] Alejandro Fernández et al., Encyclopedia de la Plata Española y Vierreinal Americana, no. 1543, p. 432
[3] Christie’s 1988 sale introduction, p. 33.