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I was recently contacted by Mary Robertson of the Huntington Library with a fascinating query about an object associated with the Sidneys. I promised that I would look about for a solution (including information about New Year's Gifts from Lisa Celovsky), but so far have found nothing solid. I'm posting the query here in hopes that someone on the list can make some suggestions. If you post to the list (not to me, off-list) we'll all be able to follow the discussion, if one ensues. I can then summarize for Mary Robertson. Thanks for your help, Germaine (see below). "I am writing to you ... in the hope that you might have some further information about an object in the Huntington's collections about which I knew nothing when you visited us back in 1995: in our Art Gallery is a silver-framed carved coconut standing cup, made in 1586, and said to have been presented by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Philip Sidney or to his family, probably after Zutphen (or, much less likely, a gift from him/ them to her). The coconut shell which forms the bowl of the cup is divided into three panels: on the first is carved Elizabeth's "E.R." monogram; on the second the Sidney porcupine; and on the third several military symbols (pike, cannon, etc.). A strikingly similar cup is said to have been made by Elizabeth from a coconut brought back to her by Sir Francis Drake, and is now in Devon, with Drake's arms in place of the porcupine and a small view of a man landing on an island rather than the military symbols. I came across this while curating an exhibition for the 400th anniversary of Elizabeth's death; the label in our Art Gallery made no mention of either Elizabeth or the Sidney connection, so I had missed its existence earlier on. Although it is not really necessary for my Elizabeth show (which opened last December), I've been trying to pin down the circumstances of the cup with a little more precision. I've been through all the secondary material here on Sidney that I can locate ( the Collected Works, his will, Katherine Duncan-Jones's biography and exhibit catalogue, other biographies, and so on) but I can't find any reference to it. As you are working with the Penshurst library we thought it just barely possible that you might have access to some inventory or other source not published, or else have some better idea than I of where else I might find mention of the Sidney cup and the circumstances of its gift." -- *********************************************************************** Germaine Warkentin // English (Emeritus) VC 205, Victoria College (University of Toronto), 73 Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto, Ont. M5S 1K7, CANADA [log in to unmask] (fax number on request) ***********************************************************************