Design for the 1856 Goodwood Cup, 1856

Henry Hugh Armstead RA (1828 - 1905)

RA Collection: Art

This is Armstead's finished design for the Goodwood Cup of 1856. An engraving of the design was reproduced in the Illustrated London News on 2nd August 1862. The cup was described as 'a tazza in silver, designed and modelled by H. H. Armstead, and exquisitely wrought in silver by Mr. Hancock, of Bruton-street. The tazza is surmounted by a group representing Prince Arthur, as Champion of Una, defeating the Giant Orgoglio. The Prince is in full armour, on horseback, wielding his redoubtable sword; the Giant is overthrown and struggling and Una is escaping'.

The subject is from Spenser's Faerie Queene and the scene is described in Book I Chapter viii. The critic of the Illustrated London News commented that the subject 'has been most picturesquely treated by this artist. The statuettes are in oxidised silver, by which means the lights and shadows are preserved as in a statue of bronze or marble. The styles of the tazza are Greek, Italian and the Renaissance combined. The value of this piece of plate is considerably above the sum - three hundred guineas - at which, as a racing prize it is estimated'.

Henry Hugh Armstead was a versatile artist who trained with his father, a heraldic chaser, before studying at the Government Schools of Design and later enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools to study sculpture. During the 1850s and 1860s he frequently worked for firms like Hancock's and Hunt and Roskell, providing designs for silver presentation pieces like this cup.