A vessel made up of three pieces of jasper and one of agate. The oval body, with a diminished arch profile, is carved with ten gadroons and engraved leaves separated by ribs with arrises. On the lower part is a broad round mount with a pattern of lambrequins (drapery) and foliage, enamelled in dark blue and opaque white with small touches of pink and black. This is joined to a button ending in its turn in a smaller mount with rings of black and white foliage. The globular knop is held above the foot by a double mount with a design similar to the previous ones, although green is here introduced to the enamelling. The foot, in the form of a cupola or inverted cup, has grooves that were probably intended for another decorative mount. Several similarly gadrooned vessels are preserved at the Musée du Louvre.

The most distinctive feature of the vessel is a lateral mount made in Germany or the Netherlands that consists of two pierced pieces with overlays of birds on branches and inset stones scattered around the composition. This recalls the pieces and “interpieces” that made up the Spanish bands, collars and bracelets of Philip II’s time, many of them fashioned in Augsburg or the Netherlands. The pattern follows models that were current in about 1590, and wax-resist enamelling is used for the bodies of the birds, a technique that was out of fashion by the date the vessel was assembled. It may be a re-enamelling, but may also be an attempt to give the cup a more antique appearance. Although it might seem strange to incorporate an archaising design, there is another example in the Dauphin’s Treasure, that of the enamelled medallions on pieces O38 and O39. The mount on the knop is similar to that of pieces O43 and O44 in the Dauphin’s Treasure, which are later than 1689, and these in turn resemble vessel MR 218 at the Musée du Louvre. All are made in the style proposed by the ornamentist Bérain, based on straight ribbons interrupted by curves and interwoven with feuillages. Within the same style, but in unenamelled silver gilt, is a vessel at the Louvre with a similar body, supported on the sides by two masks with diadems and veils. These are joined by hinges to the base and by tongues to the rim, perhaps to hold the stone vessel without having to make holes in it. The same method is used in numbers O64, O65, O66 and O67, the last of which bears the same mark as the first, that of Michel Debourg, dated 1686 to 1687.

The Museo del Prado has the photography by Juan Laurent y Minier´s photography: Vase agate, jannâtre avec veines de cornaline orientale, montures d’or et émaillé, XVIe siècle, règne de Henri IV, (HF0835/27 ) c. 1879 (L. Arbeteta, in press).