A vessel made up of two pieces of stone. The lower one consists of a high flared foot, a knop and a bowl with a diminished arch profile. The whole surface is carved with parallel gadroons, which broaden with the bowl to form a round polylobate mouth. Fitted onto this is the cover, rather flatter but carved in the same way. The gadroons converge on a small ball at the apex. The 1689 Versailles inventory already describes the cup as it is seen today, and dwells on the quality of the material, considered in the past to be “agate from Germany”, but identified as jasper in the gemological study of 1989. Arbeteta pointed out that its simplicity makes it difficult to determine its date or origin. As for the place where the piece was made, there is such a wide range of possibilities that it could be attributed with the same arguments to either Central European or Italian workshops.

The form of the cup recalls vessels made in the late Gothic period, of which there is an example in the Prado, the Rock crystal cup with cover and tall stem, O-84, attributed to Gasparo Miseroni. Studied by Alcouffe, this very delicately wrought object contrasts with the less elaborate aesthetics of the vessel analysed here. Because of their evident similarity, Arbeteta proposed a date of execution earlier than that given by Angulo, who put it at about 1600.

The Museo del Prado has the photograph by Juan Laurent y Minier, Vase agate, XVIIe siècle, règne de Henri IV, c. 1879. Museo del Prado, HF0835/19 (L. Arbeteta, in press).