Kiddoush Cup from Central Europe

The Kiddoush cup is the goblet used for the blessing (kiddoush) pronounced over wine at the entrance of Shabbat and festivals, sanctifying the day. Whether or not it has a foot, it partakes of both table silverware and domestic cultic objects. In Central Europe, in the areas of Bohemia and Austria, these silver cups are frequently engraved with Hebrew liturgical inscriptions and decorated with vine and scrollwork motifs on a repoussé bowl, sometimes gilded inside. Their manufacture, subject to the control of goldsmiths' guilds, follows the forms of local secular silverware while adding the texts of the blessing.