A large Charles II wassail bowl in lignum vitae, the silver rim with an engraved foliate fringe and inscribed ‘Antony RINDO + EXETER’ above a plain body and stem and moulded foot.

Wassailing is primarily associated with festive community drinking on important feast days, most especially Christmas, the New Year and Twelfth Night. The word ‘wassail’ derives from the old English waes hael, meaning ‘be well’ or ‘be of good health’, and in the medieval period proclaiming a derivative of the words was the customary form of toasting guests at feasts and ceremonial occasions.  

Wassail bowls like the present example first appeared at the turn of the seventeenth century when lignum vitae, first imported into Europe in 1515 for its medicinal uses, was adopted as a turnery wood. Of broad diameter, it was able to produce larger bowls than native English hardwoods of much smaller section, and exceptionally hardwearing and dense, it was perfect for containing large quantities of liquid. Also containing a sap valued as much for its healing properties that were supposed to pass into the drink as its impermeability, the timber became the wood for drinking vessels of Stuart England.

These bowls were highly esteemed, held in similar regard as vessels of silver or gold made for the elite. Both the high degree of skill and careful selection of rare wood required for their production ensured they were always expensive and prized throughout the century.

The present example is a superb, rare bowl, in exceptional original condition. Mounted with a signed silver rim this example is elevated to an exclusive group of wassail bowls of which very few examples are known.