This is a Solid Resin copy of the the original Grail Chalice of Antioch. It weighs 8 pounds and is a very detailed 1:1 Replica of the original piece. On it are 10 Apostle figues and 2 Jesus figures. One Jesus figure is young the other older. The Apostles that appear are the key ones at this time in history when the outer cup was made. Each figure can be determined by the associations of carvings, animals and what they are holding in the artwork. The cup is Antique Silver in color and measures: 7.5 inches tall x 6.5 inches in diameter. The cup holds the standard amount of Wine as is used in a passover meal. The detail in this item is extrordinary. You also get a copy of the original newspaper article explaining it's discovery and a certificate explaining the artwork in detail.
The original remarkable ancient chalice was discovered in Antioch in 1910 and was believed by many to be the Holy Grail. It fits many of the traditional specs: it was found in a city where apostles were living shortly after Christ's death, and it has a plain silver interior bowl decorated by an elaborate shell.
In the year 1910, near the world-famous city of Antioch in Syria. Workmen labor at the digging of a well, and, as the work proceeds, the piles of dirt taken out of the ground grow higher and higher. Suddenly the work stops, as one of the workmen spots a gleam of metal shining in the sunlight. Carefully he and his companions remove it from the surrounding dirt.
As they scrape away the centuries-old crusty residue, they find that they have unearthed two cups, one set within the other. The inner cup is very plain and unprepossessing, but the outer cup is made of silver.
The cups pass out of their hands and into the possession of the experts. Slowly the word spreads, and museum curators and historians from all over turn their eyes toward the two cups, for now the word is out that perhaps here, near the city of Antioch, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ten, the greatest treasure of them all has been found. For it is believed that the inner cup might be that most fabulous of all treasures-the Holy Grail!
The experts argued and examined and tested, and for a long time the only thing upon which they agreed at all was to disagree. Certainly the legends of the Holy Grail bore out the possibility of the finding of the cup somewhere near Antioch, for almost immediately after the Last Supper the cup had passed out of the hands of Christ and into the possession of Joseph of Arimathea.
The Antioch Chalice was reportedly found in Antioch in 1910. After being restored in Paris in 1913, it was displayed as the Holy Grail by its owners, Kouchakji Freres, at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. It was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Cloisters in 1950, where it is still displayed today.
The inner silver bowl is enclosed by an elaborate gold, rinceau patterned, footed shell. Inhabiting the fruited grapevine are birds, including an eagle with wings spread; animals, including a lamb and a rabbit; and 12 human figures holding scrolls and seated on thrones. Two of the figures are thought to be images of Christ. The other figures have been variously identified as 10 of the 12 apostles or perhaps classical philosophers who, like the prophets of the Old Testament, foretold the coming of Christ.
The identification of the Antioch Chalice has the Holy Grail has not been accepted by experts, and it is generally considered a sixth-century chalice meant to be used in the Eucharist. Most recently, its shape has been recognized as closely resembling that of sixth-century standing lamps, a similarity that may have been inspired by Christ's words, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12).
The original owners claimed the chalice was found in Antioch, but some scholars have argued that it, along with the rest of the "Antioch Treasure" of liturgical objects, belonged to the church of St. Sergius in the tower of Kaper Koraon, southeast of Antioch. If this is true, though, the church's members may have purchased the chalice from Antioch. Whatever its date and provenance, the Antioch Chalice remains a remarkable work of early Christian art and intriguing in its mysterious origins.
c.500-550 AD, Antioch or Kaper Koraon. Silver and silver gilt, height 7-3/4 in., diamter of cup rim 7-1/8 in., diameter of foot rim 2-7/8 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1950, inv. 50.4.
