Cup with a foot with stepped mouldings, a baluster stem, and a bowl with an oval mouth and a diminished horseshoe arch profile. It is carved with triangular facets and arrises emerging from the base. There is a keeled moulding on the lip, a gadrooned cover, and a gold finial with a turquoise in the form of a flower pot, from which a spray of flowers is missing. Three broad ring mounts decorate the joints between the stem, the foot, the bowl and the base of the cover. The one which decorated the foot is now missing. The ornamentation consists of inlaid enamel with various elements in translucent green and blue and opaque white. The upper decoration includes butterflies with spotted wings among leaves and pavilions. Although very thick, the highly proportioned quartz is carved in such a way as to highlight the quality of the stone as though it were a gem. This suggests links with works from the Prague workshop of the Miseroni in the early 17th century. The cup lacks the mount of the foot, stolen in 1918.

The fashion for decoration with insects was derived from compositions like the series by Hans de Bull (act. 1592-1604) and Jean Morien, produced in the 1610s for monochrome silhouettes, the naturalist series of Henri Le Roy (1579-1651?), and the supposed designs of Jacob Hoefnagel (1575-1630), who worked in Prague. Nevertheless, the spots on the wings and the pavilions interlaced with vegetable scrolls demonstrate some connection with French taste.

The Museo del Prado has the photograph by Juan Laurent y Minier, Vase topaze occidental, montures d’or et émaux, XVIIe siècle (HF0835/23) c. 1879. Museo del Prado (L. Arbeteta, in press).