Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Stirrup cup, of acorn form, comprising a silver cup and wooden sleeve, the latter secured at the base by a silver bead and slotting into a deep lip below a large diapered acorn rib, applied on each side with a silver disc one engraved with an oak tree above Ceubren-yr-Ellyll 1813 the other with the arms of Vaughan of Nannau, Merionethshire including a cadency label above the motto ASGRE LAN DIOGEL EI PHERCHEN.

On 25 June 1824 one of Wales's grandest 21st-birthday celebrations took place for Sir Robert Williames Vaughan, the son of Merioneth's biggest resident landowner. Held on the Nannau estate in Dolgellau, 200 guests sat down to an extravagant banquet that included a huge joint of beef from the white ox of Nannau, the subject of a painting by Daniel Clowes of Chester. Various items produced to commemorate the event are now in the collections of Amgueddfa Cymru, including two of six acorn-shaped toasting cups made for the occasion. They were made from the wood of the Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyll, 'the hollow oak of the demon', an ancient tree at Nannau associated with Owain Glyndwr.