fuddling cup

{{short description|Three-dimensional puzzle jug popular in 17th- and 18th-century England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}{{EngvarB|date=May 2013}}

File:Fuddling cups.JPG

A fuddling cup is a three-dimensional puzzle in the form of a drinking vessel, made of three or more cups or jugs with interconnecting bodies all linked together by holes and tubes in which liquor poured into one cup would disappear in one cup and reappear in another cup.{{cite web |url=https://www.agecrofthall.org/single-post/a-puzzling-situation-agecroft-s-fuddling-cup |title=A Puzzling Situation: Agecroft's Fuddling Cup |website=agecrofthall.org |publisher=Agecroft Hall & Gardens |date=14 December 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210722095629/https://www.agecrofthall.org/single-post/a-puzzling-situation-agecroft-s-fuddling-cup |archive-date=22 July 2021 |access-date=22 July 2021 }} The name “fuddling” in this cup has two meanings—to both confuse and intoxicate.{{Cite web |title=Fuddling cup |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/fuddling-cup/WwFNHLoey4tf3A |access-date=2024-01-10 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}} Fuddling cups were especially popular in 17th and 18th century England.{{cite web |title=Fuddling Cup (1630–1640) |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O21042/fuddling-cup-unknown/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210722095725/https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O21042/fuddling-cup-unknown/ |archive-date=22 July 2021 |access-date=22 July 2021 |website=collections.vam.ac.uk |publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum}}

In Archaeologia Cambrensis, a custom is described, a cup was placed on the head of the village belle and the challenge of the puzzle was to drink from the vessel in such a way that the beverage does not spill while the cup rested on the girl's head. To do this successfully, one must drink from the cups in a specific order.{{Cite web |title=fuddling cup {{!}} British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1887-0307-C-45 |access-date=2024-01-10 |website=www.britishmuseum.org |language=en}} For the cups to be drained, a correct starting point has to be found.{{Cite web |last=Hildebrand |first=Terry |title=Sets in Situations |url=https://assets.cla.umn.edu/wbaq/art/img/degrees-courses/grad/gallery/Hildebrand_Terry/Hildebrand_Thesis.pdf |access-date=10 January 2024 |archive-date=29 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129214304/https://assets.cla.umn.edu/wbaq/art/img/degrees-courses/grad/gallery/Hildebrand_Terry/Hildebrand_Thesis.pdf |url-status=live }}

Juliet Fleming noted, in Graffiti and the Writing Arts of Early Modern England, that a fuddling cup was a “toy machine” which was meant for entertainment, not for a practical purpose. Many such cups had words inscribed on the side which showcased the fun nature of the game.{{Cite web |last=Silver |first=Carly |date=2018-02-07 |title=Puzzle Jugs, the Drinking Vessels Designed to Confound |url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/puzzle-jugs |access-date=2024-01-10 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en |archive-date=27 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127023344/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/puzzle-jugs |url-status=live }} It was one of the 'joke' drinking pots of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Fuddling cups were made from the mid-17th century to the late 18th in graffito slipware in two potteries in Somerset and in tin-glazed earthenware before that.{{Cite web |title=Fuddling cup |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095837378 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en }}