Jefferson commissioned Virginia silversmith John Letelier to melt down the gifts from his dear friend George Wythe and fashion drinkware with a heavy bottom and gilded interior. Four of the new cups bore Jefferson’s initials, and the others were engraved with the sentiment “G.W. to T.J.” as a tribute to Wythe. Although the silver tumbler wasn’t a novel concept for the time, Letelier and Jefferson enhanced the cup in ways that have resonated across decades. “They keep up with and are still part of a 21st-century aesthetic in a really interesting way—they are timeless,” says Emilie Johnson, associate curator at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.
