The report of the 1883 Leinster Challenge Cup final in the "Irish Times" contains a description of the Challenge Cup: "The Cup, which is a solid silver, and is very massive, is in the Etruscan style. The body is elegantly ornamented in the highest style of the silversmith's art. On one side is a view of a football field and pavilion, showing a scrummage in full progress. On the top of the lid there is a beautifully modelled figure in correct football costume in the art of "dropping". The cup stands on a handsome ebony plinth, around which are slung on chains four massive silver shields on which to inscribe the names of the successful clubs. The work has been executed by Messrs Edmond Johnston of Grafton Street and is finished in the style for which the house has become so justly celebrated." Edmond Johnston achieved renown as a silversmith for two works in particular. He made the Liam MacCarthy All-Ireland Hurling Cup in 1921. He worked on the restoration of the Ardagh Chalice and was given permission to make replicas of it which were exhibited at the expositions in Chicago in 1893, Paris in 1900 and Glasgow in 1901. An EJ intertwined was his maker's mark.