A horn beaker with rare engraving, depicting a lioness attacking a mail coach!

English circa 1816

3½” high x 2¾” diameter / 8.9cm high x 7cm diameter

…an event that took place in 1816 where the ‘Quicksilver’ Royal Mail coach, on its way from Exeter to London, was attacked by a lioness outside the Pheasant Inn. A lioness is not what one might expect to see in the English countryside, but not far from the Inn a travelling menagerie had stopped for the night and it was from here the lioness had managed to escape from its keepers. As the coach stopped to deliver the mail bags the lioness attacked the lead horse of the ‘Quicksilver’, setting its talons in the horse’s neck and chest.
Extract from The British Postal Museum & Archive

(Old wear to the rim)

Together with a post card and first day cover stamp published in 1984 by the British Philatelic Bureau and which commemorated the event.

£575