"*f:W \v- ¦ *¦' ,¥,'. J "¦¦'¦-'!'¦¦¦ tK L- IRITISH ART REFERENCE\1K7I4-^_Aj (L.O • Is^Sk i Yale Center for British Art and British Studies SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE, This volume, forming otie of the series of Art Handbooks issued under the authority of the Lords of the Committee of Council on Edu cation, has been prepared at their request by MR. WILFRED JOSEPH Cripps, M.A., F.S.A., well known, from his other works on the subject, as an authority on all questions conjiected with ancient plate both English and Foreign. Their Lordships desire to express their appreciation of the ready consent given by the Governing Bodies of the various Colleges and Corporations named on p. ix. to the application made to the7n for permission to copy the best examples of English plate in their posses sion. The electrotypists to the Museum, Messrs. Elkington and Co., have succeeded in making admirable reproductions of these examples, and the Science and Art Department is thus enabled to offer, for the instruction of the public, a remarkable series of facsimiles of the best remaining works of the gold- and silver-smiths of this country. South Kensington Museum, July, 1 88 1, COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE: A HANDBOOK TO THE REPRODUCTIONS OF SILVER PLATE FROM CELEBRATED ENGLISH COLLECTIONS. BY WILFRED JOSEPH CRIPPS, M.A., F.S.A. AUTHOR OF "OLP ENGLISH PLATE," ETC., ETC. Published for the Committee of Council on Education BY CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited, ii, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. LONDON : B- Clay, Sons, and Taylor, BREAD STREET HILL, E.O. CONTENTS, PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS , . vii COLLEGES AND CORPORATIONS WHOSE PLATE HAS BEEN COPIED . . ix PREP'ACE xi CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARY SKETCH. Barbarian work — The Saxon or Early Romanesque Period — Ancient Celtic work — Norman or Late Romanesque Times — The transition to Gothic — Rise of Secular Gilds of Goldsmiths — Their first regulations ¦ — The English Enamellers of the Thirteenth Century — Notices of Domestic Plate . ^ i CHAPTER II. THE GOTHIC PERIOD. The Goldsmiths' Gild in London — Provincial Gilds — Early Scottish Legislation — College and Corporation Plate of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries^Appendix, giving Chronological List of Remark able .Specimens zo vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER IIL PAGE THE CENTURY OF THE RENAISSANCE. Prosperity of the Century — The work of ¦ the Goldsmiths' Company of London — Church Plate — Decorative and Domestic Plate — Appendix, giving Chronological List of Remarkable Specimens 46 CHAPTER IV. THE CENTURY OF THE STUARTS. Prosperity interrupted by the Civil War — Scarcity of Plate under the Commonwealth — The London Goldsmiths of the Seventeenth Century — Country work — Destruction of Plate at the end of the Century — Examples of Decorative and Domestic Plate— Appendix, giving Chronological List of Remarkable Specimens 85 CHAPTER V. THE QUEEN ANNE AND GEORGIAN PERIODS. New Sterling Silver — London Silversmiths of the Eighteenth Century and their Marks — Queen Anne Plate — The later fashions of the Century — Specimens of Plate illustrating the work cf each Period — Appendix, giving Chronological List of Remarkable Specimens 124 INDEX IS3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 9- lO. II.12.13-14.15. 16.17-18.19- 20.21. 22. 23- 24.25-26.27. 28.29.30.31- 32. —Cover of the Belief St. Patrick, XI. Century — The Gloucester Candlestick, circa 1 1 10 — The Lynn Cup, czV^ra 1350 ... —Wassail Horn, XIV. Century, at Queen's College, Oxford — Portion of Founder's Mitre, circa 1400, at New College, Oxford, —The Giant Salt, XV. Century, at All Souls' College, Oxford —Mazer, circa 1450, at AU Souls' College, Oxfprd — The Foundress' Cup, early XV. Century, at Pembroke College, Cambridge ', —Mazer, circa 1450, at Ironmongers' Hall, London — The Foundress' Cup, circa 1440, at Christ's College, Cambridge — The Anathema Cup, 1481-2, at Pembroke College, Cambridge — Hour-glass Salt, given 1493, at New College, Oxford -^Standing-Cup, with Cover, circa 1480, at New College, Oxford — The Leigh Cup, 1499-1500, at Mercers' Hall, London — Chalice, 1507-8, at Corpus Christi College, Oxford — Chalice, 1527-8, at Trinity College, Oxford... — Paten, to match the last, at Trinity College, Oxford — Hour-glass Salt, 1507-8, at Christ's College, Cambridge — The Foundress' Beaker, 1507-8, at Christ's College, Cambridge — Hour-glass Salt, 1518-9, at Ironmongers' Hall, London ... — Standing-Cup, circa 1520, at Christ's College, Cambridge — Standing-Cup, 1523-4, at Barber Surgeons' Hall, London — Standing-Mazer, 1529-30, at All Souls' College, Oxford ... — Salver, 1545-6, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge —Ewer, to match the preceding Salver, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge — Stoneware Jug, 1562-3, at Vintners' Hall, London — The Poison Cup, circa 1570, at Clare College, Cambridge... — Apostles' Spoons, 1566-7, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridg( — Standing-Cup, 1569-70, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge — Tankard, 1574-5, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford — Cocoa-nut Cup, 1584-5, at New College, Oxford — Basin, 1590-1, at Merchant Taylors' Hall, London II 242628 29 303233 35 38394142 50 51 525657585960 61 64 6668 70 71 737475 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 33. — Ewer, 1597-8, property of Corporation of Norwich 76 34. — Salver, to match the preceding Ewer, property of Corporation of Norwich 77 35. — The Founder's Cup, late XVI. Century, Emmanuel College, Cambridge 79 36. — Salver, circa 1615, at Merchant Taylors' Hall, London 37. — Beaker, 1604-5, at Mercers' Hall, London ... ... ... ... 91 38. — Ostrich-egg Cup, 1610-11, at Exeter College, Oxford 92 39. — Gourd-shaped Cup, 1611-12, at Broderers' Hall, London 94 40. — Tankard, 1634-5, property of Corporation of Bristol ¦•¦ ••¦ 9^ 41. — Standing-Salt, 1636-7, at Haberdashers' Hall, London ... ... 97 42. — Standing-Cup, 1637-8, at Haberdashers' Hall, London ... ... 98 43. — Loving-Cup, 1649-50, at Haberdashers' Hall, London ... ... 99 44. — Caudle Cup, 1654-5, at Clothworkers' Hall, London ... ... 100 45. — Standing-Salt, 1661-2, at Clothworkers' Hall, London ... ... 101 46. — Cup of Gold, circa 1660-70, at Exeter College, Oxford ... ... 103 47.— Fire-dog, circa 1670-80, at Knole ... ... 105 48. — Jar with Cover, «Vi:a 1685, at Knole ... ... ... ... ... 106 49. — Vase or bowl, «>ira 1685, at Knole ... ... ... ... ... 107 50. — The Royal Oak Cup, 1676, at Barber Surgeons' Hall, London ... 108 51. — The Pepys Cup, 1677, at Clothworkers' Hall, London ... ... 109 52. — The Rich Cup, 1681-2, at Saddlers' Hall, London ... 110 53; — Irish Tankard, 1680, at Merchant Taylors' Hall, London... ... ill 54. — Octagonal Salt, 1685-6, at Mercers' Hall, London... ... ... 112 55. — Monteith, 1702-3, at Vintners' Hall, London 130 56. — Wine Fountain, circa 1710, the property of the late Earl of Chesterfield ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 131 57. — Wine Cistern, to match the last ... ... ... ... ... 132 58. — Three-branched Candlestick, 1714-15, at Haberdashers' Hall, London ... ... ... ... ... 133 59. — Tea-Kettle, 1732-3, the property of Her Majesty the Queen ... 134 60. — Tea-Spoons, circa 1730, at Barber Surgeons' Hall, London ... 135 61. — Two-handled Cup with Cover, 1739-40, at Goldsmiths' Hall, London ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 136 62. — Ewer, 1741-2, at Goldsmiths' Hall, London... ... ... ... 137 63.— Coffee-Pot, 1764-5, at Salters' Hall, London ... ... ... 139 64. — Tea-Urn, 1771-2, at Barber Surgeons' Hall, London 140 65. — Chocolate-Pot, 1777-8, the property of the South Kensington Museum ... 66.— Standing-Cup with Cover, 1795-6, at Merchant Taylore' Hall, London 141142 ^^ For the loan of the Illustrations numbered 7, 15, 16, 17, 26, 36, 37, 44, S3. 54. 55. 6ls 62, 66, the Department is indebted to Mr. Murray, the Publisher of Old English Plate, by the author of this Handbook. The following are the Colleges and Corporations whose Plate has been placed at the disposal of the Committee of Council on Education. Electrotype copies have already been made from examples in the collections marked (*) ; and it is proposed to carry on and complete the work as soon as possible. The articles selected from each collection up to the present time will be found by referring to the Index at the end of this Handbook. COLLEGES. . OXFORD. * Exeter College. * Queen's College. * New College. * All Souls' College. * Corpus Christi College. CAMBRIDGE. * Clare College. * Pembroke College. * Corpus Christi College. Christ's College. * St. John's College. * Emmanuel College. * Trinity College, Dublin. St. Andrew's University. Glasgow University. LIST OF CORPORATIONS, ETC. CORPORATIONS. LONDON COMPANIES, &c. * Barber Surgeons' Company. * Broderers' Company. * Clothworkers' Company. * Goldsmiths' Company. * Grocers' Company, * Haberdashers' Company. * Ironmongers' Company. * Mercers' Company. * Merchant Taylors' Company. * Saddlers' Company. * Salters' Company. Lincoln's Inn. PROVINCIAL CORPORATIONS. Lord Provost cf Edinburgh. Mayor and Corporation of Bath. Mayor and Corporation of Bristol. Mayor and Corporation of King's Lynn Mayor and Corporation of Morpeth. * Mayor and Corporation of Norwich. XI PREFACE. The South Kensington Museum series of reproductions in electrotype of specimens of Old Plate now affords the student the opportunity of following at one tii7ie and place tlie whole history of English silver-working, from the earliest times to the presejit day. Every period is adequately represented by some of its very best and most characteristic pieces. The presejtt handbook is specially designed to introduce this series to the student in proper chronological order, and to show how it illustrates the various stages through which the art has passed in England. For more general history, and also for ivhat relates to hall-marking and the standards, the reader may be referred to the Large Catalogue of the Gold and Silver Work in the South Kensington Museum, pubUshed in 1878, and wo7-ks on Old English Plate in 7vhich the means of ascertaining the date of specimens by their hall-marks are fully detailed. In such a handbook as the present the illustrations are all-impor tant. The 7Cioodcuts have accordingly been prepared iviih especial xii PREFACE. care under the superintendence of the Author, by Mr. 'y . D. Cooper, and it is believed they will be found admirably to meet the requirements of the art student. Descriptions of the objects in the Museum, being many of them taken wholly or in part from official sources, are set inside the usual margin and given in slightly smaller type. Some few celebrated examples are possibly or probably not of English origin, but it has been decided to include them, because they have been so long domiciled in England, and are so well known, that no account would seem complete thai omitted to tiotice them. w. y. c. Cirencester, July, 1881. COLLEGE CORPORATION PLATE. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY SKETCH. Barbarian work — The Saxon or Early Romanesque period — Ancient Celtic work — Norman or Late Romanesque times — The transition to Gothic- Rise of Secular Gilds of Goldsmiths — Their first regulations — The English Enamellers of the Thirteenth Century — Notices of Domestic Plate. The South Kensington Handbook on Gold and Silver, is designed to give a general sketch of the history of art-working in those metals from the earliest times. Commencing with some notes as to t*he metals themselves, it says what is necessary of their use in ancient days, and carrying the student from the twentieth cen tury before Christ, when Abraham was rich not only in cattle but silver and gold, bridges over the ages -which elapse between the first known goldsmiths amongst the Israelites or the Egyptians, and the first traces of the art in our own land. The whole of this interval is more or less dealt with down to the long and strange period after the fall of the Western B 2 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. Empire, when the Church alone saved from destruction — at all events in France and North-Western Europe — ^so much of the arts as served her own purposes. This period lasts till the kind of revival which is observed in the eleventh century, bringing us to the beginnings of Medieeval as distinguished from Byzantine art. But for some such influence as Holy Church there might well have been an absolutely blank space for Western Europe between ancient and modern schools of workmanship, all inter mediate traces swept ayay by the waves of successive barbarian inundations, and it would have been easier than it is to say at what period the history of medieval or modern art may be said fairly to commence. If, however, it becomes necessary to fix upon some arbitrary point for the commencement of an account of our own goldsmiths' work, it may seem a convenient one to start from the period at which the monastery gives place to the secular gild, the monkish artificer to the master and his appren tices. At the same time there is the inconvenience that in taking such an obvious point either all mention is omitted of a few notable traces of early Saxon and Celtic art, few though they be, or an exception must be made of them that they may be used as a sort of preface to the regular work of the school of English goldsmiths. On every account it is preferable to take the latter course, and so to commence with a few words about Saxon and Irish work, early enamelling, and such pieces of the transition period between Romanesque and Gothic as the famous Gloucester candlestick, even at the risk of going for a few pages over trodden ground. Such specimens too belong to the transition period between monastic and secular art, and bring us to the end of the thirteenth century, from which modern history runs in more consecutive course. It will not be contested that so important a craft as that COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 3 of the goldsmith then becomes in the history of the industrial arts of our own country, deserves more detailed notice than could possibly be devoted to it in the general handbook. The present sketch, therefore, follows the course of working in gold and silver as practised in England in a little more of detail ; and in general uses as its text the very complete series of ex amples, whether original works or reproductions in , electrotype, which the art-student may find in the galleries of the South Kensington Museum. The illustrations will not be absolutely restricted to these specimens, but may include a few notable examples that are well known and accessible to the student in some other public repository, though perhaps unfit for repro duction, owing to their elaborate workmanship or their delicate enamelling. There will, at the same time, be no attempt made to give an exhaustive list of the known pieces of any period, early or late, but only to illustrate each period by those which are most typical of its prevailing fashions. For this purpose the reproductions in the South Kensington Museum will be referred to in their proper chronological order, and by the time the student has gone through the list, with their help and the guidance of the illustrations which have been selected for this Handbook, he will have had the opportunity of forming a correct idea of the work of every succeeding generation of goldsmiths, and will find it not diffi cult to assign an approximate date to almost any piece of English work that he may happen to come across elsewhere. By the generous permission of the owners of the finest ancient English plate, including Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, many Colleges, both at Oxford and Cambridge, and the great Gilds of the City of London, the student now finds at South Kensington every period represented by its most historical and most important examples. Returning to preliminary history, it may be remarked that 4 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. with barbarian work England has little or nothing to do. No such treasures have been found here as the Scythian head ornaments at St. Petersburg, brought from the Cimmerian Bos- phorus, the Gothic treasure found at Petrossa in Wallachia, or the Visigothic votive crowns with pendant ornaments, discovered at Guarazzar, six miles from Toledo, in Spain. One student seeks to find in the details of some, if not all, such objects traces of Byzantine, another detects more ancient Roman, in fluences; but the earliest known' objects of English art preserve, as does all the work executed by monkish workmen in North- Western Europe, much more distinctly the Roman and Byzan tine traditions which are to come to the surface, first in France, when the waves of barbarian invasion subside — say, for the sake of a date, the commencement of the ninth century. Long before this, however, monkish goldsmiths had begun to make themselves a name, and the fact that not only St. Eloi, the patron of the goldsmiths of France from the seventh century onwards, but his predecessor in the favour of the craft, St. Martial, both hail from Limoges, or near it, is some proof that this city may with reason be called the cradle of the gold smiths' art in Western Europe. In England the case is somewhat different, an actual cradle of the goldsmiths' craft it is difficult to findj there are no such early traces of its work as in France, and when the first definite records of monastic work are found towards the ninth century, they are not confined to a single town or district. By the commencement of the eleventh century it would have been hard to say whether the monk of Glastonbury should be reck oned more skilful than his brother of Ely ; or him of Durham, York, or St. Alban's, than either. In all these, and many other places, work was carried on. The patron saint of the craft in England, the great St. Dunstan, himself, like St. Eloi, a great worker in the precious metals, was some time of Glastonbury; and the fact that the English goldsmiths wait till the end of the COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 5 tenth century for the appearance of their patron, indicates not unfairly the distance at which they follow their French brethren. A few pieces of Saxon work in the way of personal ornaments, made of gold and set with stones, are to be seen in the collection bequeathed by Mr. Gibbs to the South Kensington Museum. These may be of the sixth centuiy, or thereabouts, whilst the well-known ring of Ethelwolf, in the British Museum, is thought to be of the eighth century. This is, properly speaking, rather an article of jewellery than of plate, but it may serve as an illiistration of the kind of work done at the time of which we are speaking. It is of gold and dark blue-black enamel, if the coloured paste with which the hollows are filled can be rightly called so, and it bears the name of the king in plain Roman letters. M. de Laborde con siders the colouring matter of which the ornamentation is com posed to be true champleve enamel ; that is to say, that the letters are filled with an enamelling mixture which is solidly incor porated with the metal bed by fusion. We may add, that this is the mode of enamelling employed by the Saxon goldsmiths generally, and that it derives its name from the digging out by which the hollows to receive the colouring matters is effected. Of little later date is the equally well known relic called the jewel of King Alfred, preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. It is a sort of seal-shaped object, being of oval form, the lower part narrowing to a point, but its use is uncertain. It is ornamented with a figure traced with thin walls of gold on a plate of the same metal, the figure being shown in pastes or enamels of three different colours ; and a piece of rock crystal, covering the whole, forms the face of the jewel. A legend in bold characters runs round the edge. Here we have our first example of another kind of enamel ling, called in French cloisonne, from the thin walls of filigree which form the shallow ponds or enclosures which are to be filled with the colouring matters. This is the kind of enamel found 6 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. in Byzantine times, and, following them, of the earlier Limoges work. It must not be confounded with the paintings on copper used in later days, which are the Limoges enamels of common parlance. These two examples are enough to show that in the art of working in gold, and even of enamelling, the English were, in the ninth century, coming up with the goldsmiths of the con tinent of Europe, for there is no reason to suppose that either the ring or the jewel are of other than English origin. The English monasteries were soon to become as much the nurseries of the art as those of Solignac or St. Denis could ever have been abroad. Alcuin, in the eighth century, had been a power ful patron of the arts; indeed it is not quite clear that France was not in some branches of art learning from England at this time. It would seem from the interesting notes of Alcuin in France, collected by Dr. Rock in his Church of our Fathers, that youths were sent thence by permission of Charlemagne, to acquire the art of illuminating manuscripts at the great monastery of York. The smith ^^'olvinus, to whom is attributed the front of the famous golden altar of St. Ambrose, at Milan, the most remark able example of the art of the ninth century, and executed in 835, was unmistakably a Saxon. Compare his name with that of Vulfuin, the monk of Chichester, a goldsmith of the eleventh century, mentioned by Ordericus Vitalis. So much for the ninth century. There is little to be said about its successor, except perhaps as regards Ireland. Here, far away as it may seem, a whole school of goldsmiths had long flourished, even at times when little good work was done an)'- where else in Europe. A great deal of this ancient Celtic gold- work was in personal ornaments such as torques, armlets, gorgets, and the like. Much of it has unfortunately been melted down in recent days, but enough remains to show that at this dark period Celtic craftsmen could hold their own with the best. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 7 These personal ornaments are the most ancient of all, but towards the eleventh century . ecclesiastical work, such as the objects next to be described, shows the growing influence of the Church in the arts. Two most notable objects, a reproduction of one of them in electrotype being now in the South Kensington Museum, may bring our sketch to the time of the Norman Conquest. They are the Ardagh Cup and the Shrine, or cover, of the bell of St. Patrick, of which the following descriptions are condensed from the large Catalogue of the Gold and Silver Smiths' Work in the Museum, published in 1878. The Ardagh Cup was found in 1868 at the place of that name near Limerick. It is made of an alloy of one part of copper to three of silver, and holds three pints. Its dimensions are 7 in. high, C)\ in. diam., the foot 6|- in,, bowl 4 in. deep. The cup, which was probably made for a chalice, is two handljd, and of half-globe shape on a cylindrical stem, with a circular convex foot. Its bowl is chased with hammer and chisel with the names of the apostles in narrow angular uncial letters, and is ornamented with a belt, which, as well as the handles, is covered by small plates of gold worked in filigree patterns on a ground of beaten work. At various points and intersections there are placed buttons of encrusted champleve enamels. The foot is as fully ornamented inside and out ; on the inside with very fine silver filigree set over translucent enamel worked on a chased silver plate in the manner of the fourteenth century Italian enamellers. Here and there are traces of amber which has been set in places round the enamels. The late Earl of Dunraven numbered forty varieties of pattern in the gold wirework ornament, which is Celtic of the finest kind and of the best period. Amongst these are the Greek fret with Celtic varieties, spiral trumpet-shaped lines, interlaced bands, knots and arabesques, all different. It is 8 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. unsurpassed by any ¦ example of the work remaining to us of the Byzantine goldsmiths or enamellers of the same period. The translucent enamel here mentioned for the first time, is what the French call bassetaille ; it being placed over low reliefs or engravings cut on the surface of the silver, to which it gives great beauty and delicacy. The piece is considered by the best judges to be of the very end of the ninth, or the early part of the tenth century. The second Irish object is the Shrine, or cover of the bell of St. Patrick, of which there is an electrotype copy in the Museum. COVER OF THE BELL OF ST. PATRICK. -12. The original consists of a framework of brass inlaid with plaques cf gold filigree work, and set with jewels and crystals. At the back is a panel of silver perforated with crosses and surrounded by an inscription in Irish characters. It is the cover of a much more ancient bell, but is itself of the last years of the eleventh century. Height, 1 1 in. ; length, 6J in. ; width. The chief features of the ornamentation are the silver and gold filigree and the coloured paste gems which it surrounds with its complicated folds. The twining of the gold wire into serpents and knots of every variety of form is a distinctive feature of COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 9 the work of the time, only carried to greater perfection in the following century. Each separate portion of the sides and ends is decorated in different detail to the rest, and the pecu liarity of the dragons, birds, and beasts, though in pairs and balanced, is that each arrangement has a distinct design which can be traced through every complication. It is more fully described in the Catalogue of the Gold and Silver Smiths' Work in the South Kensington Museum, to which those readers who may be interested in its history and other particulars are referred. Enough has been said here to identify the principal features of its workmanship. Such pieces as these may represent the early Romanesque period of British art — the period of filigree work and stone-setting on flat surfaces. If we divide the Romanesque period into two and call the part already noticed, the early Romanesque or Saxon period, it will leave the late Romanesque or Norman period, and the transition times between Norman and true Gothic, before we get to the work of the English gilds of secular goldsmiths. Of the Norman period, however, few if any English speci mens remain ; but plenty of work was done, still by monkish artificers. Several causes stimulated production. In the first place the fashions imported by the Normans, though perhaps no advance upon those they replaced — for luxury and refinement were on the side of the Saxons — created a demand for new vessels suited to the tastes of the day. For another thing, the world h^id safely lived over the year 1000, and that crisis being passed might now be supposed more likely to last indefinitely. There was, therefore, no particular object for the living from hand to mouth, which had been more generally practised shortly before that critical point by the devout and the nervous alike than is generally perhaps realised. Still, however, notwithstanding these influences, no great change in style is at first apparent. Byzantine influences may be traced both in the figures and in the architectural details of lo COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON PLATE. such objects as the celebrated Basle altar-front of gold, which is one of the most notable specimens of the Western work of the eleventh century, and which shows that in goldsmith's work the small round arches and the Byzantine tone of decoration, that is to be observed in Norman architecture, must be expected. The chroniclers preserve the names of monks famous in the craft, and a record of some few of their works, — Brithnodus, Abbot of Ely, and his images overlaid with silver and gilt and adorned with precious stones, may be cited as examples, — but there is no known specimen of English silver work upon which the finger can be placed as an illustration of this style and time with any certainty that it is truly of English work. Nothing remains of the mass of ecclesiastical work that must have been made in , Saxon and Norman times, a faint idea of which may be formed from the authorities collected in illustration of his history of Anglo-Saxon ritual by the accurate antiquary who has been already quoted. Dr. Rock. His notes are not less valuable for our purpose than for his own. We have to wait for the following century, and the Transition period, for such an example as the Gloucester candlestick. This fine piece of church, and monkish, work was made at Gloucester about mo, and it is now in the South Kensington Museum. Mr. Pollen, in the South Kensington Handbook on Gold and Silver, draws attention to " the delight in representing gaunt bony humanity and monster form, which took so great a hold of the sculptors of churches " in so many parts of Europe at this time, and " the effort which carries out one connected composition through such vigorous but graceful contortions of line as are seen in the twists, connecting knots, and graceful interchanges of volutes in the piece under discussion. It is well to note," adds Mr. Pollen, " the connection between the designs of these knotted dragons and serpents and the elegant plaits and figures of the S.ixon and Celtic metallurgists." Certainly no piece better exhibits the Transition period between COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. ii THE GLOUCESTER CANDLESTICK, CirCa IIIO. — IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEL'.'W. 5i. — 7649. Candlestick of white metal-gilt, known as "the Glou cester Candlestick.'' It has a triangular base, round stem, with three bosses surmounted by a deep pan and pricket. The whole surface is ornamented in relief with pierced foliage, figures of monsters, dragons, etc., and bears several Latin inscriptions, one of which records that it was given by Abbot Peter to the abbey church of St. Peter of Gloucester, and fixes its date. It is I ft. II in. high ; width at base, 8 in. The base is supported on feet formed by the necks, heads, 1.2 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. and claws of three dragons. The stem is composed of spiral bands and flat scrolls bearing the Latin legends, and the sur faces are completely covered with vegetable scrolls, flat bands, and other work, together with figures ; the pan being basket- work of bands in triple lines, the ends of which are intertwined and branch out into leaves and tendrils. Dragons, human figures, and forty-two monsters of various designs, are to be counted ; the tails of the monsters curling themselves every where, and assisting the branch and leaf work in filling up every spare space in the design in one mingled mass of graceful convolution. the Romanesque and the Gothic, than this beautiful candlestick and the casts ofthe similar kind of candlestick at Milan, which may also be seen in the South Kensington Museum, the latter being a step more modern. In neitlier have you the light architectural tracery of the Gothic work of fifty or a hundred years later, but in both you have the breaking up into open leaf and scroll work of what would have in earlier days been flat surfaces decorated with filigree. In the Milan candlestick you have even more of the Gothic and less of the Transition grotesque. And yet through all this you can trace a course of links connecting the workmanship of these successive ages, and that in more than one branch of art. It is of Saxon illuminating of a far earlier date that Dr. Rock is speaking when he describes " crosses the outlines of which are much broken and varied, but the groundwork of which within those lines is a labyrinth of the most intricate and fanciful designs, sometimes made up, here of birds, hound-like animals, there of serpents, of snakes, of beasts with men's heads, of kinds of dragons, all drawn out to a wire-like length, interlaced with one another, or twining within themselves so as to form knots which no hand might unravel." The same author goes on to trace the connection between these ancient fashions and the still older interlacing knots and intricacies which are found upon the crosses set up by our British ancestors hard by their churches, or as road-side tokens of the COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON PLATE. 13 spot at which the true believer lay biiried in days before " North men's pagan fury burned down church and overthrew cross." Still, for all this, there cannot well be a more marked step than that which takes the student from such a specimen as the late Romanesque chalice called the Chalice of St. Remigius, which is so well known and has been so often engraved with its half-ball bowl and its circular foot, the otherwise plain surface ornamented all over with bands of filigree and precious stones, and enamels, to the Milan candlestick. The chalice of St. Remi gius is at present at Reims, but it belongs to the Bibliotheque Nationale, at Paris, Such was the art of the Transition period at which we may hail the encroachment of such comparatively fresh and charming work. Still it was an encroachment only — rather the re-adap tation of an old than the introduction of a new style. The rude coffin-chalices that have been found in England of the last quarter of the thirteenth century, one of which has lately been placed in the British Museum, preserve the Romanesque form, even if entirely undecorated, as in the instance mentioned. Silver is prescribed by the Constitutions of Stephen Langton in 1206, as the proper material for chalices; the commentator in Lyndwode on these constitutions adding, perhaps unnecessarily, that they might be of gold. As an evidence that the Celtic monk still kept on at his smith's work in Ireland, may be men tioned in passing the Shriije of St. Monaghan, of the twelfth century, of which the Museum has a plaster cast. 1864. — 54. This is a shrine with a narrow gabled roof, height 2,o\ in. ; width 18 in. ; with filigree metal work, and images in high relief. It also exhibits enamelling, some of which is now lost. The monk, however, at all events in England, now begins to give way to the professional craftsman, though he does not disap pear altogether from the scene. By the middle of the twelfth century a powerful secular gild of goldsmiths existed in London, and in 1180, the twenty-sixth year of Henry II., it was, amongst 14 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. other such gilds, amerced for'being adulterine, that is set up .with out the king's licence ; but it had its wardens and they had their duties, even though the gild was not regularly incorporated until more than a century afterwards. We can well understand that having once paid their fine they were at liberty to take what steps might be to protect their trade, and to regulate its work, espe cially as regards frauds and apprentices, both important matters in the days that were coming. In very early times those who carried on particular trades or handicrafts were accustomed to form themselves into gilds, or fraternities, for the purpose of protecting and regulating the trade or mystery, as it was called, which they exercised. Amongst such associations those of the goldsmiths seem to have been amongst the most ancient in many countries of Europe. By the middle of the thirteenth century the goldsmiths in Paris had their formal code of statutes, which mention the " sterling " standard of English silver, a proof, if any were needed, that such matters were here, too, under regulation ; and, returning the compliment, English ordi nances of 1300 recognise gold "of the touch of Paris" as an admirable standard. The art was leaving the cloister, though Matthew Paris may preserve the names of monks of the thirteenth century who followed the craft as before, such as was Walter of Colchester, "painter and sculptor incomparable." The royal patronage of the thirteenth century seems to have been bestowed on ecclesiastic and layman alike. Odd, the gold smith, was surveyor ofthe works at Westminster in 1237, and was not a monk, for his son Edward was associated with him in royal employment and royal favour. Later on in the century it is one Torell, called the goldsmith, who executed the striking monument still to be seen in Westminster Abbey of Henry III. and his Queen, Eleanor. By the middle of the century the goldsmiths of London were a numerous and powerful body of craftsmen, for in an affray which occurred in 1267 between them and the tailors, the two trades met and fought to the number of 500 men on COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 15 each side, of whom some were killed, the dead being thrown into the Thames, and others wounded, before the bailiff's of the City could part them and apprehend the ringleaders, some of whom were hanged. But, truth to say, their turbulence was not their only failing, for frauds such as those which seem to have equally prevailed in France, and were dealt with by the regulations of the Provost of Paris in 1260, had already in England called for a royal mandate, which is to be found in the Close Rolls for 1238. In other trea tises such regulations have been mentioned for legal or historical purposes, but we may quote them rather to show that colouring gold was now forbidden except in the case of gold thread, that laton or copper was not to be gilt, and that precious stones were not to be mounted in false metal, nor glass imitations in metal of good quality. All these provisions are so many indications of the modes of working then in vogue, as well as of the frauds that the craftsmen already, were in the habit of practising. At the very end of the century (1300) an Act of Parliament recognises the wardens of the craft officially for the first time, and charges them with the assay of vessels of silver, and the marking of them with the well-known sign of the leopard's head, as well as with a general supervision over the trade. For this purpose a right was permitted them of domiciliary visitation from shop to shop amongst the goldsmiths, and of seizing gold of bad quality should they find any. Before we go on to the fourteenth cen tury let us notice a branch of the art in which the craftsmen of the thirteenth seem to have been very successful, that is in enamelling. A note upon this enables us to introduce a most precious object in the South Kensington Museum that most authorities agree is of English make — an enamelled chest, or coffer, which, from its heraldry, must have been made about 1290-1300, either for William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, or for his son Aylmer. i6 COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON PLATE. 1865.— 4. Casket of gilt copper crusted with enamel, stands on four short legs rudely shaped into human feet. Its sides, ends, and top are divided into lozenge-shaped shields touching at the points, with small quatrefoil ornaments at the points of inter section. The heraldic bearings are those of England, Angou- leme ; Valence, Earl of Pembroke ; Dreux, Duke of Brittany and Brabant. Length, 7 in. ; width, 5^ in, ; height, 3J in. The enamel is champleve, of the kind made by the Limoges enaniellers of this period, and as much of their work was im ported into England, it may have been made there, but it is a general opinion amongst connoisseurs that this coffer is of English make, even though the tomb of the same WiUiam de Valence in Westminster Abbey dates from Limoges. Another piece of the same period, but not so well known, is a fragment of some fine cup made of a nautilus' shell, now lost, at All Souls' College, Oxford. It is of silver gilt and of the form of a filled-up horseshoe, but having a semi-elliptical open ing at the larger end such as would receive the central curve of a nautilus' shell. The enamels, with which it is entirely covered, are heraldic like those of the casket, but are cloisonne' as well as champlevd, with a ground of translucent enamel, the arms being of cham pleve, and the intervening bands of cloisonnd of the most delicate character. It may be hoped that such a beautiful piece of work may be claimed as English, but the arms it bears being those of France, Navarre, and Champagne, point to Philip le Bel, or his son, Louis Hutin, as its original owner. Its date must almost necessarily be fixed as somewhere between the marriage of the former with the heiress of Navarre in 1276, and the severance again of the two kingdoms in 1316 on the death of Louis Hutin. This piece heads the list of Old English College Plate, and will remind us of the enamelled stall plates of the early Knights of the Garter at Windsor. It is impossible to doubt that in the later part of the thirteenth century a school of enamellers COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON PLATE. 17 especially skilful in applying decoration of an heraldic character, carried on its work in England. The great reputation of their brethren of Limoges possibly commanded for the more ancient seat of the art a share of the orders for more important work. It cannot be denied, for example, that the executors of Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester in 1277, went to John of Limoges for the enamels required for the tomb of that prelate, any more than that the more ancient references to enamel always seem to speak of it as opus Lemoviticum, or Limoges work. This may, however, have often been used as a descriptive term to indicate the kind of work rather than to imply that it had actually been executed at Limoges itself, and the very names of English enamellers of this period are in some cases preserved. A set of episcopal constitutions of 1229 enjoin the provision by the parish churches of the diocese of Worcester, of two pyxes, one of which was to be of silver or ivory, or de opere Lemonitico, using the term apparently in the general sense, that if not of some other costly substance, such as those mentioned, it was to be of enamel. Hitherto the specimens we have been able to refer to have been almost always either personal ornaments or ecclesiastical work, but with the decided traces that we have now come to of a secular gild, we shall not look in vain for a record of more general demand for their work, nor for examples of what we may call domestic plate. First we may mention those necessary articles of every-day use, spoons ; although there is no known English spoon of so early a day as two or three French ones attributed to about the year 1330, now in the South Kensington Museum. From what we find later on, we may say that English ones of the same period would have been of much the same fashion, probably showing the same slender tapering stems, ending in an acorn for point or knob, and viith the same pear-shaped bowls. From the middle of the thirteenth century silver spoons for household use are mentioned by the dozen. In the wardrobe accounts of 1296, it appears that D i8 COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON ELATE. even the kitchen of King Edward I. was supplied with a large silver spoon weighing twenty shillings and three pence, for cooking pur poses ; nine spoons of gold occur in the self-same record. A few years later an entry occurs of eight other spoons belonging to the same sovereign which has often before this been specially noticed, because it describes them as marked on the necks with the Paris mark of a lily. It is the earliest reference to that celebrated hall mark. Mazer bowls, too, almost as common as spoons in olden days, begin to obtain frequent mention in wills and inventories of the thirteenth century. A bishop of Chichester leaves his great cup of mazer, in 1253 ; Edward I. had his mazer with a cover, foot, and boss of silver, in 1296; Sir William Vavasour his "great mazer" in 131 1. Here we have king, bishop, and knight all using mazer cups, which we may well suppose resembled some ancient vessels still preserved at the Harbledown Hospital, near Canterbury, the last halting- place for pilgrims on their way to Becket's shrine. One of these, although without any stem or rim of silver, has a large silver- gilt medaUion fixed in the bottom of the bowl bearing the figure of a knight on horseback with a shield on his arm slaying a dragon, the shield with the bearings of Beauchamp, and an inscription running round the medallion referring to Guy of Warwick. This mazer is thought to be of the reign of Edward I. Further details as to these curious drinking-cups will be better reserved until we come to some of which illustrations may be given in their proper chronological order. Even in a felon's inventory, a mazer cup worth ds. is men tioned in 1337. Still larger and more important must the ewers and basins have been of which mention is found in the King's jewel rolls of 1284, in which it is recorded that a pair of such basins were then bought in London ; a washing-basin for the hall occurs at about the same time, as well as an ewer on three feet, gilt and enamelled in vine-fashion. These last are in a plate indenture of King COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON PLATE. 19 Edward II. Hanaps are recognised in a statute of 1285 as important articles. The tavern-keeper of those days, if not bound over as security for his good conduct by his " hanap," had to substitute some other equally substantial pledge. It was evidently his principal drinking-vessel. It is curious to trace the hanap and the modern article called a " hamper '' to the same source. The Saxon hna;p was a cup or goblet, and the place where such hanaps were kept would be the hanaperium, or the " ambry." It may have originally been a strong chest, and so the term hanaper or hamper may have been applied and continued, at last exclusively, to a chest-like basket with a lid, which might be used for various purposes. We may gather that drinking-cups were of importance enough to gain special or pet names in very early times, from the fact of a Bishop of Durham, in 1259, calling one of his by the name of " Chanteplure." As an indication, too, that they were now not always made of wood or metal only, may be adduced the same bishop's Indian nut, mounted or harnessed with silver. Let us not forget either the great nef, or ship of silver, used in the days of Edward I., as well as later, for alms, by which we should probably understand broken meat from the table to be given to the poor. A generation or two only later than this, is the great almsdish of silver, which William, Lord Latimer, speaks of in his will (1381) as in his wardrobe in London. In the absence of any existing specimens of the handiwork of these ancient days, such notices must serve to indicate how the goldsmiths employed themselves up to the time of their regular incorporation by charter as a trade-gild at the very commencement of the fourteenth-century. CHAPTER II. the GOTHIC PERIOD. The Goldsmiths' Gild in London — Provincial Gilds — Early Scottish Legisla tion — College and Corporation Plate of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, In the present chapter we tome alike to the first regular incor poration of a Goldsmiths' Gild in England, and to the earliest extant specimens of its work. The London gild was incor porated by letters patent from Edward III. in 1327, under the name of "The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London." This charter regulated the sale of goods, and provided for the election of honest and suffi cient men best skilled in the trade to rule it, reform it, and punish offenders. It also provided that countiy towns should send up representative men, " to be ascertained of their touch of gold, and there to have a stamp of a puncheon of a leopard's head marked upon their work as it was anciently ordained." No long time afterwards, certainly by the middle of the century, good sterling silver was ordered to be worked by the smiths ; who were also to mark the wares made by them with their marks, for which they should answer. All these regulations show that a move was taking place in trade matters at this period, and it was so abroad as well as at home. The goldsmiths of France are equally found to require supervision ; the regulations of the gild at Montpellier are still extant, and from them we gather, amongst other things, that the mode of assaying silver by COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 21 the cupel, which has ever since been practised, was thus early known. The powers of the Goldsmiths' Company were actively exer cised in London and beyond. One Peter Randolfe was interro gated, in 1376, for exposing two circlets for mazers of mixed or inferior silver. At another time, one John of Rochester was taken by the master of the trade of goldsmiths there, for counter feiting mazer bands in copper and brass plated over with silver or gilded, and brought up to London, he having sold the goods within the City. Fairs and markets held in the west and other distant parts of England, seem to have been more or less regu larly attended by the officials of the London gild in exercise of the wider powers granted them in 1462 by King Edward IV., renewing and confirming their former charter. The names of many of the great London goldsmiths are known. Thomas Hessey was king's goldsmith in 1366, Nicholas Twyford in 1379 ; and besides these, the names of John de Chichester, Thomas Raynham, and John Hiltoft, occur in the Royal Wardrobe Accounts. Sir Drew Barentyn, goldsmith, was a great man at the close of the century. It is questionable whether any local authorities had jurisdiction over the trade at this time, or whether the London gild exercised a general supervision over the whole country. Provincial gilds were certainly esta blished by the beginning of the fifteenth century in various places — ^indeed goldsmiths are mentioned at Newcastle in the middle of the thirteenth, but it is a bare mention Only; and work is, about the same time, spoken of as of Durham. Spoons " made at York," are mentioned in a north country will of 1366, and amongst the records of the fifteenth cen tury preserved in the York registry, are most curious inventories of the tools and other contents of the workshops of York goldsmiths. Wormod, Jonyn, Harlam, Angowe, Luneburgh, and Colam, are amongst the names thus mentioned, and more than one of 22 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. these point to the foreign origin of the owner, for Harlam, Lune burgh, and Colam must almost for certain have come from Haarlem, Luneburg, and Cologne respectively. Alan de Alne- wyk, goldsmith of York, leaves his tools to a kinsman in 1374, on condition of his good conduct at school and in learning his art, and his behaving well to the testator's widow. Even a small stock in trade seems, in 1458, to have included several anvils, forging hammers, files, gravers, planishing hammers, and other such appliances. A more detailed inventory of 1490 contains some very interesting items recorded in a curious mixture of Latin, French, and English. In addition to such articles as we have already mentioned, materials for gilding and a box full of requirements for enamelling are enumerated, also bands and feet for mazer bowls, pearls, crystals, books of gold leaf, a mazer shell, a knife-handle of "green cerpentyn " and jet beads. Here we have, in fact, all the materials necessary for the carrying on of a general manufacturing and repairing goldsmith's business. We do not, however, find that any member of the Goldsmiths' gild rose to be chief magistrate of the City of York before 1497, when one Thomas Gray became Lord Mayor, and several other crafts seem wealthier and to have been rated higher towards the repairs of the Common Mote Hall called " of the St. Anthony's Gild." As the Mercers is the first of the London City companies, so here the " merchants and mercers " paid most towards such civic levies. Enamelling, no doubt, held its own, as we shall shortly see in the case of the Lynn cup. And articles of English make and English fashion, which was evidently a distinctive thing of itself, were all this time much valued in France. Several such articles, amongst them an enamelled clasp, are found in the inventory called the Duke of Normandy's, in 1363 ; and Charles VI., in 1399, possesses a great goblet of gold weighing more than six marks and enamelled, with a ewer to match it, both of them the gift of the King. of England. These, and other references to English Avork, may be found collected by the COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 23 learned M. de Laborde, and are of a time that would not have seemed favourable to the progress of the arts ; 1399 was the very year of King Richard the Second's deposition. Scotland takes the place of Ireland, of which nothing more will be heard till modern times. Under James II., in 1457, a " cunning man of gude conscience " was to be deacon of the craft in each borough, and fraudulent work was punishable by dire penalties, the defaulter's goods being confiscate to the king, and his life at the king's will. Other legislation towards the end of this century ordains that the silver used shall be of as good silver as that of Bruges. Certain privileges were accorded to the " hammermen " of Edinburgh, who included the goldsmiths as vfell as certain other trades, in 1483. It is not a century, however, in which the arts were likely to prosper very much in England ; art, no less than law, goes into abeyance amid the clash of arms. The Wars of the Roses seem to have brought about the destruction of all earlier treasures made of the precious metals. Church plate no doubt was spared until the next century, but all went then, as all the possessions of the great families who came alternately to grief wdth the varying fortunes of the rival houses of York and Lancaster had gone before. There are but nine pieces of Hall-marked plate known of earlier date than 1500. The South Kensington Museum con tains only eight specimens supposed to be English, even including such ancient pieces as the Gloucester Candlestick ; and as none of these eight are marked, it is not certain that they are all of English origin. There are in all some fifteen or twenty specimens of the four teenth and fifteenth centuries preserved among the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge and the civic gilds of London, only two of them, and those about the least ancient, being marked in any way. Of most of these it is proposed to say something, and of several of them to give illustrations chiefly engraved after the reproductions 24 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. in the Museum. The objects selected for this purpose may be taken to thoroughly represent the styles prevalent in the two ENA.MELLED CUP, circa 1350, AT KING S LYNN. It is of silver-gilt, ornamented with translucent enamei, and has a long slender stem rising from a shallow circular foot, which is edged below with a flat expanded base of pentagonal plan, with COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 25 a wavy outline. The knop also is somewhat pentagonal, with five acorn-shaped projections, and the goblet is divided into five compartments by ribs ending in foliated ornaments. These compartments contain figures male and female in costumes of the fourteenth century one above another in two tiers on dark- blue, green, or purple enamelled ground ; the figures are silver with parts of the dresses enamelled, and with sprays of star- shaped flowers and leaves in silver rising from them ; on the foot are similar figures, also dogs chasing foxes and hares. Height 15 inches ; diameter of cover 4j inches. centuries. First let us notice the most ancient and most beautiful of the treasures of our country corporations — the enamelled cup long preserved by the corporation of King's Lynn, in Norfolk. We may dismiss with the less reluctance the local tradition that it was presented by King John, because it is a no less interesting object if it is attributed to the still very early period to which it really belongs — the middle of the fourteenth century. Opinions may differ as to the excellence of the chasing, but there can be no doubt as to that of the enamelling ; and it is satisfactory to find that one of the first extant specimens we come to of English silver-work bears out the reputation that records attribute to the English craftsmen in this respect from early times. The next illustration of the work of this century is a very characteristic one — the Wassail Horn at Queen's College, Oxford. Horns are amongst the most ancient of English drinking-vessels, perhaps popular because they were generally supposed to reveal the presence of poison in any beverage with which they might be filled. The old bishop whose Indian nut and cup called Chanteplure have been already mentioned, leaves his " great drinking-horn with silver fittings," to his sister Agatha, in 1259, and constant mention is found of such vessels from that time forward. We may instance the cup called " TJnicorn," be queathed by Chief Justice Gascoigne to his son in 141 9. Doubtless it was not unlike such specimens as we can now consult at the South Kensington Museum. Though no silver 2 6 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. WASSAIL HORN AT QUEEN S COLLEGE, OXFORD. I iTH CENTURY. 1880. — 52. The Wassail Horn at Queen's College is formed of a buffalo horn with a band of silver-gilt mounting 2] inches deep round the lip, and it is encircled lower down by two similar bands resting on bird's-claw feet. Each of these bands has the word " wacceyl " engraved on it three times in Gothic characters, and the top is finished with an ornament also engraved with the word "wacceyl," and terminating in a grotesque monster's head. It is of English work 19J inches high; the horn itself being no less than 25 inches long, and the greatest diameter of its oval mouth 5^ inches. The cover, mounted by an eagle, is of later work. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 27 mounting to it is mentioned, we know that they were almost always garnished with silver, sometimes gilt, and furnished with feet of various design. There is a good example preserved at Christ's Hospital, London, and we may remember, in passing, that estates were sometimes held by what is called, in the lan guage of the law, " cornage," or tenure by the horn. The Pusey Horn is the token by which the Pusey estates in Berkshire are held. The Elmore Horn has been handed down with that estate by the ancient family of Guise in the same manner. The Queen's College Horn, now used as a loving-cup, is traditionally called poculum caritatis, or cup of affection, and is said to have been presented to the college by Philippa, queen of Edward III., Robert de Eglesfield, its founder in 1340, being her chaplain. According to the statutes, the members of the college were to be summoned together by the sound of horn ; perhaps this very horn was formerly employed for the purpose. Corpus Christi College, at Cambridge, possesses a very similar horn, a reproduction of which may also be seen in the Museum. It is mentioned in the list appended to the present chapter, and is of about the same date as the horn already described at the sister University. At New College, Oxford, are still preserved some of the most precious relics of the last part of the fourteenth century, relics which show the immense pains and skill that were still bestowed upon work for the Church. There is no more elaborate nor more artistic example of the Gothic goldsmith's work of this period than the well-known pastoral staff of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, the founder of the college. No description will do justice to the beautiful Gothic architectural work with its brackets, finials, pinnacles, crockets, niches occu pied by statuettes, and the translucent enamels which distinguish this beautiful art-treasure. It could not be reproduced in elec- trotyjje without injury, but the purity of the Gothic work of the period may be judged of by the crocketed silver-gilt mount of the 2 8 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. same great prelate's mitre which is preserved with his crosier. A portion of this has been moulded for the South Kensington Museum (1880. — 58), and is given in the ac companying woodcut. In the early part of the fifteenth century we have the first example of a standing Salt, perhaps the most important article of table plate in those days. Marking the place at table of the lord of the feast, the principal salt was naturally an object of great magnificence; and it served this purpose rather than to hold the salt for the meal, a supply of wl-.ich was placed near each person in a smaller utensil called the " trencher salt." In early times the great Salt was often of curious device, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March (1380), had his in the shape of a dog; that of John, Earl of Warrenne, was in the form of an " olifaunt." The following- specimen at All Souls' College, Oxford, is formed as a savage man bear ing the vessel for salt upon his head. It was no doubt part of the plate given to the college by Archbishop Chichele, who founded the college in 1437, and died in 1443. In this case of crystal, the holder for the salt was often of some equally valuable sub stance, such as agate, serpentine, or chalcedony, and it usually was provided with a cover, partly for the purpose of- keeping the contents clean, ym partly for preventing the introduction of poison, of which our ancestors had a more than whole some fear. The oldest and quaintest of Salts, in any. English collection, it must still be ques tioned whether it is of English make. I'ORTION OF CROC KETED MOUNT OF WILLIAM OF W V K E H A M * S IMITRE, AT NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON PLATE. 29 THE GIANT SALT, 15TH CENTURY WORK, AT ALL bOULs' COLLEGE, OXFORD i83o. — 60. Standing Salt, formed of a circular faceted crystal in silver- gilt mounts with a cover of cut glass, probably replacing the original crystal. It is borne on the head of a huntsman, or wild man, of silver-gilt, clothed in a loose tunic with black- 30 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. pointed buskins having a hunting-knife suspended in his belt, the face and hands painted in natural colours. The base is coloured green and covered with painted figures, on a small scale, of various wild animals, dogs, and huntsmen. In the centre is a larger figure fully, coloured, playing on the bagpipes. Round this base is a battlement with eight circular turrets. The cover is surmounted by a finial in form of an artichoke, partly coloured green. We now come to the first example of those curious old drinking-bowls called mazers. like the Giant Salt, it is to be seen at All Souls' College, and is probably part of the same bequest of plate, but this piece is undoubtedly English. It is one of a whole set of mazers preserved intact for more than 400 years, the only such set in existence. M.\ZER, circa 1450, AT all souls COLLEGE, OXFORD. 18S0. — 62. Mazer or bowl of maple-wood, with a deep rim of silver- gilt, the bq.nd of the mount plain. Diam. 6 in. ; rim, \\ in. deep. This is one of the simplest and plainest examples of the ancient mazer bowls, but exhibits their usual characteristics in the wood of which it is made, the depth of its mount, and the boss or print in the bottom of it. Antiquaries have busied themselves to collect every possible note relating to these curious vessels, commonly used in early English days for domestic purposes. Much doubt has been raised from time to time about their name as well as their use, but there can really be no question that the word mazer is derived from the Flemish word maeser, which signifies, according to the best writers, a knot of the maple-tree. It will be remembered COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE 31 that the German word maser is a spot, speck, or the grain of wood, and maser holz, veined wood. The old Latin nam&for them seems to have had but little mean ing ; they are called " murrce" in the old inventories. This has much misled the curious as to the materials of which they were made. It was, perhaps, not unnatural to connect them with the " myrrhine'' vases of classical times, whatever these ancient and precious vessels were made of; but it is clear that wood was the ordinary material used in medifEval days for utensils such as these. The old Paris goldsmiths are said to have exercised their art in mending drinking- cups made of many different kinds of wood, in the eleventh cen tury ; and here, too, " treen *' vessels, or vessels made of wood, were in common use amongst our ancestors. "Beech made their chests, their beds, their join'd stools; Beech made the board, the platters, and the bowls." So much for these bowls, which seem to have been valued in proportion to the beauty of the wood of which they were made, the knots and roots of the maple being especially prized for their veined and mottled grain. The mounts added to the depth of such knots as were too shallow otherwise to form drinking-vessels. Possibly, again, it was the elaborate character of the mounts, and the enamelled bosses, that has led to the occasional expres sion of a doubt as to their use. But the numbers in which they are found and their enumeration in all cases amongst other domestic articles for the service of the house, point conclusively to their use as drinking-vessels. Their destination, moreover, is sometimes expressly mentioned, and some of them bear inscriptions which are decisive upon the point. One well-known mazer carries on its band in Gothic letters ofthe end of the fourteenth century, the legend, " In the name of the Trinitie, Fille the kup and drinke to me.'' The Scrope mazer at York Minster bears inscribed around the rim an indulgence of forty days' pardon to all that drink, and the 32 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. records of the gild to which it anciently belonged mention this pardon also, but as limited to those who drink from it with moderation and not excessively. The York mazer is of the early part of the fifteenth century. The cup called the Foundress' Cup, at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in its original state, was not very dissimilar to the All Souls' Bowl, although it has an inscription, as shown in the accompanying engraving, on the band.^ The Pembroke THE foundress' GUI', EARLY 15TH CENTUlvY, AT l-EMUKOKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 1880. — 34. Cup with deep rim and foot, of silver-gilt. On the outside is the Gothic-lettered inscription — " Sayn - denes -y t - es - me - dre For - her - lof - drenk - and - mak - gud - cher.'' 1 It is taken in this order, as it would have been difficult to under stand it without having first seen what the ordinary mazer was like, thouo-h it is probably somewhat older than the bowl at AU Souls'. ^ COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 2>Z Round the base is a rope ornament of twisted wire, and above it a fillet of Gothic openwork cresting. Round the stem is the inscription — like the other in Gothic letters — " God - help - at - ved," and the letters V.M. Height, 6j in. ; diam. 6 in. The letters V.M. on the stem are thought to stand for Marie de Valence, the name of the foundress, mother of Aylmer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, after whom the college had its first name ; but taking the rim and that alone tobe what romains of an earlier cup, it can hardly be of so early a date as the , foundation of the college, though it possibly may go back to the last years of the fourteenth century. Cup is not now a mazer, but a cup of silver-gilt on a foot. It is hardly possible, however, to come to any other conclusion than that originally it was a mazer bowl of the usual type ; and that it was given its present silver stem and bowl at some slightly later date, but still not much later than the end of the century, perhaps in consequence of its earlier wooden bowl getting broken. MA2ER, Circa \e^_ . lERS HALL, LONDON. 1880. — 21. Mazer bowl at Ironmongers' Hall, London, This is of wood, mounted with a silver-gilt rim, bearing an inscription in Gothic letters, much defaced, alluding to the Salutation. The arms of the Company are enamelled in their proper colours on a raised boss in the bottom. Height, i\ in. ; diam. (>\ in. Athird mazer(i88o. — 21), engraved above, is of about the same period, and introduces us to the treasures of the great London 34 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. Companies for the first time. like the others it has been repro duced for the Museum. The mention of the boss or print may remind us that, in the case of bowls formed of the half of a gourd or nut, or even of ill- turned wood, a central plate answered the useful purpose of cover ing the rough place occasioned by the meeting of the fibres. It would be of no particular use in the case of a cup formed of silver, and it may confirm our view that the Pembroke College Cup was originally a mazer, that the existing metal bowl has inside it a raised boss, or print as it is sometimes called, bearing the Gothic letter M, probably preserved and transferred from the original bowl of wood. In the most ancient inventories of the college treasures it is described as a " murra," or mazer, whilst in those of more modern times it is called, so the author is informed, " pecia stans,'' or a standing cup. The Foundress' Cup at Christ's College, Cambridge, is as interesting a treasure as the Valence Mary Cup at Pembroke College. Its diagonal bands of beautifully executed running foliage in repousse work might be of the later part of the century, but the coat-of-arms enamelled on the boss within the cup seems to fix its date within a very narrow margin. The arms are those of Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester, impaled with Cobham of Sterborough. This impalement, according to the heraldry of those days, was the distinctive coat of Eleanor Cobham, the second wife of Duke Humphrey, and points to 1440 as the approximate date of the cup. From the Duke the cup may easily be supposed to have passed into the hands of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, and mother of King Henry VIL, who left it at her death, in 1509, to the college she had founded. AVe now turn to Maces, of which possibly the most ancient in existence are those of St. Andrew's University in Scotland. Reproductions of these have been, or will be in due time, placed in the South Kensington Museum. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 35 THE foundress' CUP, cirCa 1440, at cheist S COLLEGE, CAMliKIDGL. 36 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. Six of them are said to have been discovered in the tomb of James Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrew's, in the Church of St. Salvator's College, which he had founded in 1456. One is sup posed to be the original from which the other five copies were made. The stem is elaborately engraved with spiral bands of columbine flowers, and the monogram J. K., the initials of the bishop, sur mounted by a crown. It has three knops of architectural design, consisting of battlemented turrets, in which have been placed statuettes ; two of these, representing ecclesiastics bearing • scrolls, remain on the lowest knop, also another figure pray ing, and two more. The upper knop has also fi-ve statuettes remaining — three of ecclesiastics reading, two of angels. From a chain at present attached to the centre of the mace depends a massive seal-shaped object, of circular form, with a handle nearly three inches long ; on the face of this seal, which is depressed, and has a battlemented edge, is a Latin inscription in Gothic letters, recording that James Kennedy had it made in Paris in 1461. The cocoa-nut commended itself from early times to the attention of the goldsmith. Of convenient shape for forming the bowls of standing cups, nuts were often richly mounted, being somewhat rare and therefore prized. We have already had occasion to mention an Indian nut in the thirteenth century. They were more common in the fifteenth, and seem usually to have had covers of silver as well as silver mounts; sometimes, too, silver cups took the shape of nuts. King Henry VI. has his hanap of silver made after the fashion of a nut in 142S; perhaps, as we have conjectured in the case of the Valence Mary Cup, the original bowl when broken was not easily replaced, and resort was had to a silver vessel of the same shape for the purpose of refitting the existing mounts. A "black nut " of 1431, covered and gilt, with an eagle on the summit of the cover, must certainly have been a cocoa-nut, and COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 37 so must the two covered " notes " garnished with silver and gilt, weighing xxiii. ounces, and valued at 2s. 6d. the ounce, which are included in the lists of Plate in the Treasury of the Exchequer for 1444. Much such cups as we may suppose these to have been are the very ancient cocoa-nut cups which are preserved at New College, Oxford. They are unsuitable for reproduction, but it is worth while quoting the description given of one of them in the catalogue of the Loan Collection at South Kensington of 1862, which is as follows : — Cup of cocoa-nut, with an inscription on the silver-gilt mount. This mount represents a tree growing in ground, within a palisade, its six branches enclosing the bowl with their foliage, and con necting themselves with the rim ; a nest of wattlework, formed of silver wire, is observed round the bottom of the cup, and the stand is of openworked crocketing formed in Lombardic J3]Q's. Height, 8 in. ; diam. at top, 2^ in. Ostrich eggs were as popular as cocoa-nuts and as much prized, but there is no extant example of an ostrich egg with mounts of the century with which we are now dealing. More breakable than the cocoa-nut, fewer have lasted till our times. There is an ancient but somewhat rudely ornamented one at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, originally used for the Host, which is known to have been broken about 1553. The fragments are even now held together by a tripod- mounting, renewed at the expense of Richard Fletcher, Bishop of Bristol, in 1592. Ostrich eggs were commonly supposed to be the eggs of the griffin, and they are often so described in old wills and inventories. Even Judge Gascoigne, in 1419, calls such a cup a "grypey" or grype's egg; grype being another word for griffin. Of little later date than the last is the well-known Anathema Cup, preserved with the Valence Mary Cup, at Pembroke College, Cambridge. The date of this is fixed by the Hall-mark of 1481-2, 38 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. which it bears. Its reputation is owed chiefly to the threatening in scription it bears — Qui alienaverit anathema sit — for its fashion is sufficiently simple and somewhat wanting in both force and grace. This is the comment, perhaps not altogether in itself undeserved, of a French writer of repute, who argues from the Anathema THE ANATIIE.MA GUI', 14S1-2, AT I'H.MEROKE COLLEGE, CA.MBRIDGE. —35. This cup is a perfectly plain standing cup of silver-gilt, on a stem, without a cover, having a narrow band of Gothic ornament round the foot. Cup that English goldsmiths' work had its moments of somno lence and hesitation. If the cup were to be set up as one of the recognised best specimens of its time this might be merited criticism, but the writer referred to has possibly been led to suppose that the cup was a more important piece than it is, from the fact of its donor having cursed any one who should ever part with it. In point of fact it is one of the ordinary drinking-vessels COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 39 of the day. The inscription upon it from which it takes its name need not be supposed to imply that the cup was of any unusual importance, or was ever considered of merit from an art point of view. HOUR-GLASS SALT, GIVEN 1493, AT NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD. I. — 55, Silver-gilt salt, with pyramidal cover. The stem is of hour glass shape, with spirally twisted gadroons or flutes, there being a knop at the small part, or waist, of Gothic foliation ; the cover, 40 COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON PLATE. which is surmounted by a finial, is divided into panels by crocketed ribs, the interspaces being filled with glass, gilt in an imbricated pattern with foil behind it ; round the base an inscription runs in Gothic letters : " Super WA montes TER stabant HIL aqueM." Height, 14J in. ; diam. 5^ in. It is not unfortunate that we can engrave a singularly beauti ful specimen opposite to the Anathema Cup {see page 39). The grotesque and fanciful Salts of a previous century seem now to have been replaced by articles of a more settled fashion. What may be called the hour-glass pattern of Salt prevailed in the last years of the fourteenth and the first quarter of the following century, to be then succeeded by equally popular designs, of each of which the South Kensington Museum has secured examples which will be mentioned in their turn. This at New College is amongst the best of the hour-glass Salts, and it is not too much to say that the elegant courses of leaf-work set with pearls which run round it in three places, and the crocketing and other work, particularly of the cover, mark it as one of the most beautiful works of the closing period of Gothic art. There is an equally well-known and even more elaborate Salt at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, given by Bishop Fox. It is of a little later date and of more angular plan, but the beautiful arabesques and leaf-work with which its panels are filled entitle it to rank as a masterpiece with the Salt at New College. Two more cups, one of them still at Oxford like so many of the best pieces we have been considering, the other in the possession of a London gild, may represent the standing cups or hanaps of the last quarter of the fifteenth century. The Oxford Cup is engraved opposite (1880. — 53). The well-known Leigh Cup of the Mercers' Company closes the list, and shows us for the first time some trace ofthe new feeling that came in with the Renaissance, COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. STANDING-CUP AND COVER, circa 1480, AT NKW COLLEGE, OXFORD. 1880. — 53. This cup, repousse, with pine-apple pattern, has a trumpet- shaped stem, with beaded ornamentation and Gothic cresting round the base, and likewise round the cover, which last rises to a pine-apple-shaped finial of foliage and fruit ingeniously massed together. The cup can be detached from the stem. o 42 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. THE LEIGH CUP, 1499-1500, AT MERCERS HALL, LONDON. —105. A grace-cup and cover, ornamented with crossed bands, in the panels formed by which are maidens' heads and flagons alternately, the badges of the Company. The foot rests on three flagons, and has a deep chased border with a pierced trefoil enrichment. On the corner are the arms of the City of London and of the Company, and the whole is surmounted by a maiden seated with a unicorn reclining in her lap, with the word "Desyer" on its side. Round the cover and cup are bands of blue enamel with letters of silver — COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 43 " To elect the master of the Mercerie hither am I sent. And by Sir Thomas Legh for the same entent." Height, 16 in. ; diam. 6j in. The New College Cup shows similar projecting knobs beneath its bowl to those which form the only ornament of the Anathema Cup, and pine-apple work like the New College Salt. The Mercers' Cup has the trumpet or bell-shaped stem and Gothic crestings that will be observed in the case of most of the cups and salts of this period. It will have been gathered that in searching amongst what remains of English work of the period with which this chapter has dealt, we do not find any of the transition pieces that are found elsewhere, and would be classed in Italy as quatrocento. In the first quarter of the sixteenth century we may find a few specimens, like the Leigh Cup of the Mercers' Company, which may be thought by some to be of mixed styles ; but, save for these few examples, and they are very few, from 1500 we find ourselves all at once amongst workmen of the new school, and the new style everywhere prevailing. An entire exception to the rule must, however, be made of such articles as chalices and m.azer bowls, which preserved their conventional and familiar shape and Gothic decoration longer. The gradual awakening that had long been going on in the south does not seem to have so early extended here as far as the art of the goldsmith is concerned : possibly it may be more traceable in other branches of art. In England Gothic orna ment exclusively prevails up to the year 1500; and the line of demarcation is almost as marked as when one turning over the page opens unexpectedly upon a fresh chapter. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II. CHRONOLOGICAL LI^T OF REMARKABLE SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH PLATE OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES, OF MOST OF WHICH REPRODUCTIONS IN ELECTROTYPE MAY BE FOUND IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. THE MUSEUM CATALOGUE NUMBER IS PREFIXED TO SUCH SPECIMENS. Enamelled cup at King's Lynn, c. 1350. (See page 24.) 1880. — 52. Wassail Horn at Queen's College, Oxford, c. 1340-1370. (See page 26.) 1880, — 68. Wassail Horn at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. This is a similar horn to the preceding, but of less finished work. Length, 24^ in. ; diam. at tip, 4^ in. It has a scalloped band, nearly one inch deep, round the tip, a battlemented band round the centre, resting on strap-shaped supports to sustain the horn, and a terminal ornament, composed of a crowned and bearded head rising from an openwork battlemented turret. In front is an oval shield bearing the arms of the college. It was presented probably about 1347 to the gild of Corpus Christi by John Goldcorn, alderman of the gild and founder of the college. 1880. — 34. Cup called the Valence Mary Cup at Pembroke College, Cambridge, c. 1350. (See page 32.) 1880. — 58. Part of mounting of mitre, found in the tomb of Wilham of Wykeham, at New College, Oxford, end of fourteenth cen tury. (See page 28.) 1880.— 60. The Giant Salt at All Souls' College, Oxford, c. 1430-1440. (See page 29.) 1880.— 62. Small Mazer without foot, at All Souls' College, Oxford, c. 1440. (See page 30.) COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 45 The Foundress' Cup, at Christ's College, Cambridge, 1440-1446, (See page 35.) 1880. — 21. Small Mazer, without foot, at Ironmongers' Hall, London. c. 1450. (See page 33.) Cocoa-nut Cup at New College, Oxford, c. 1450. (See page 37.) 1880. — 35. The Anathema Cup at Pembroke College, Cambridge, 1481. (See page 38.) 1880. — 53. Silver-gilt Standing-Cup with cover, at New College, Oxford, c. 1480. (See page 41.) 1880. — 55. Silver-gilt Salt with pyramidal cover, at New College, Oxford, c. 1493. (See page 39.) 1880. — 105. The Leigh Cup, at Mercers' Hall, London, 1499. (See page 42.) 1880. — 45. Alms-dish at Bermondsey Church, London, c. 1500. CHAPTER III. THE CENTURY OF THE RENAISSANCE. Prosperity of the Century — The work of the Goldsmiths' Company of London — Church Plate — Decorative and Domestic Plate. For England the sixteenth century was one of unexampled pros perity. The arts enjoyed to the full the effects not only of the change from wars to peace, from internal confusion to order and the feeling of public security that is necessary for their very exist ence, but of the new ideas and the new learning, the advent of which has already been noticed. They enjoyed, too, the stimulus, no less necessary, of the ample patronage which the prosperity of the times was able to assure them. Increasing wealth and increasing luxury told with especial effect upon the art and craft of the goldsmith. Households were now re-arranged on a scale of extended magnificence, and the gold smith became a dependent of no mean consideration in the domestic establishments of the great. The name of Robert Amadal, goldsmith to Cardinal Wolsey, may be mentioned to show that it was not reserved for king or queen only to retain goldsmiths in their private service. By the middle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth wealth and luxury had been continually on the increase for almost a century. Serious foreign war had been almost, civil war quite, unknown since the death of Richard III. on the field of Bosworth in 1483, and the spell was to remain unbroken till the Spanish Armada COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 47 threatened it in 1588. The result of this had been that the money formerly spent in arms and subsidies was now lavished on tapestry, arras, silver, and other household stuff, of which the chronicler can only say that its value " doth grow to be almost inestimable." Five or six hundred or a thousand pounds was the ordinary value, we are told, of the cupboard of plate to be found in the house of a knight, gentleman, or wealthy merchant, by the year 1586; the merchant excelling the others in " neatnesse and curiositie." Even the farmer used silver instead of pewter, and had "a silver salt, a bowle for wine (if not a whole neast), and a dozen of spoons to finish up the sute." All this will prepare us to find that the gilds of goldsmiths were in full activity, and their powers in full force. The books of the Company in London teem with ordinances providing for the good quality of plate, both silver and gold, for its proper marking with the leopard's head, and many other such details. Renewed supervision is maintained over the country goldsmiths, who seem to have been left alone for most part ofthe fifteenth century. Per haps but little business was transacted out of London in that more troubled time. Now, however, things were different, Stourbridge Fair was visited in 1493 ^t ^^^ expense of two pounds to the Com pany, and it is recorded in 15 12 that "divers fairs, cities, and towns " were searched as in former times, the wardens riding into the country for this purpose. St. James's Fair was specially visited, together with other towns in the west of England, in 15 17. The local marks used at Exeter, York, and Norwich, are found to the present day upon much of the village church-plate in the neigh bourhood of those cities, and domestic plate was made at all three places in considerable quantity. Peter Peterson of Norwich was a goldsmith of note ; and the pedigrees and arms of a number of London goldsmiths occur in the Heralds' Visitations held in the early years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth — good proof of their prosperity. 48 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. The personal interest taken by the queen in the restoration ofthe standard for the silver coinage of the realm in 1560 is well known ; and the standard for the silver of which plate was made was strictly inquired into at the same time, and also later in the same reign. The assayer at Goldsmiths' Hall, from his excessive zeal in such matters — or his unfair dealing, as it has been hinted by some of those whose work he condemned — was cordially hated in the craft, according to a record of 1582 ; and in 1597 two London goldsmiths stood in the pillory at Westminster for their frauds, with their ears nailed thereto, afterwards going through the same ordeal at Cheapside, where they each lost an ear, and finally being thrown into the Fleet Prison and fined. Notwithstanding this, we have no one such celebrated smith to point to in England as Italy can boast of in Benevenuto CeUini, France in Etienne Delaulne, Germany in Wenzel Jamnitzer, or Spain in Arphe. It is difficult to give the names of the artists who executed even important works, from the loss of all evidence by which to identify their names with their private marks. In some rare instances a shrewd guess at them may be made. For instance, the Elizabethan communion cup at All Saints', Stamford, shows a shield with a lizard or newt and a barrel or tun for maker's mark, no doubt a rebus for the name of Newton. Suffice it to say, that as in later times the goldsmith might depend upon a Hogarth or a Flaxman, so in the reign of Henry VIII. he had the aid of a Holbein, and there were plenty of crafts men, though their names may be unknown, who were able to execute all manner of work with technical skill and artistic feel ing. The engravings of Hollar preserve some of the designs of Holbein for cups, ewers, and the like, all full of the charm of the new style ; but let us turn to what may be actually seen and studied at the South Kensington Museum and elsewhere. There are many original EngHsh pieces in the South Ken sington collection to represent this splendid century, — as many as there are of all previous ages put together. Tliejse specimens. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 49 however, must, unfortunately, all be referred to the second half of it. • It is otherwise with the gallery of reproductions, in which every part is adequately represented. It is doubtful whether in England the epoch can be accurately divided into three periods, such as those into which Sehor Riano distinguishes the Spanish plate of the same century- — an improved Gothic, the plateresque, and the Grasco-Roman. The student can judge for himself from the examples we are able to put before him ; but that the styles of the two countries run upon the same lines to some extent may be gathered by observing the transition from the semi-Gothic salt-cellars and mazers of the reign of Henry VIII., first to the foliated arabesques, cartouches, and medallions of the middle of the century, and then on to such an example as the Norwich ewer of 1597. Of each of these stages our engravings give a good idea. Before, however, we go to domestic, let us dispose in a page or two of the ecclesiastical, plate, which is of so much historical and artistic interest. Its artistic interest ends abruptly with the reign of Henry VIII. ; but the speciinens of chalices made in the early years of the century, which are all that we have to show of the Gothic silver work that was so admirably adapted to our ancient churches, and the sacred uses for which they were intended, cannot be too widely known, nor too much admired. Of Gothic style, but of the Renaissance period, they may serve to show that, in the case of vessels made for the use ofthe church, conventional forms of an earlier day were clung to with reverent attachment. These Gothic chalices first succeeded to the Romanesque in the early part or the middle of the fourteenth century. The bowl then changes from the half globe to conical form, narrow afthe bottom and having the sides sloping straight outwards, the knop has Gothic window work instead of involved leafage, and the foot becomes hexagonal instead of circular, this to prevent the chahce rolling when laid upon its side to drain. The beautiful chalice given by Bishop Fox to his college of Corpus Christi at Oxford is 50 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. of the year 1507, and an admirable example it is for our purpose, illustrating all the points which the modern designer of church plate has too often forgotten or neglected. Of but twenty years later date is the more elaborately orna mented chalice given by Sir Thomas Pope to Trinity College, Oxford; which, in addition to the delicate cable edges to be CHALICE, 1507, AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD. observed on the older cup, has an elaborately engraved inscrip tion on a belt running round the bowl and the foot, and a similar one around the rim of the accompanying paten. This inscription is in the nondescript capital letters, not Lom bardic nor yet Roman, on a hatched ground, which are found on much work of the Tudor period. It is not unusually found upon chalices of this date. " A chalice with a patent gilt, graven with COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 51 Calicem Salutaris, weighing xxi. oz.," is included amongst the plate of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, at his death in the same year, 1527. Both the preceding and following chalices show the crucifixion on one ofthe panels of the stem, which the priest kept CHALICE, 1527, AT TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. towards himself at the time of celebration. The paten at Trinity corresponds in every way with the chalice to which it belongs. It has the sunken centre with six lobes that prevailed in late Gothic times, earlier patens having been the plainest and thinnest of plates, sometimes engraved with the hand blessing or the vernicle. 52 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. Some eight or ten are all that are known to remain of these beautiful chalices with their patens, the rest having fallen under the Puritan ban and been melted up as " monuments of superstition," a few of them in .the reign of Edward VI., but many more at the fresh out burst of Protestant zeal which characterised the first years of that of Queen Elizabeth, It is almost a wonder that even these few PATEN, 1527, AT TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, remain, for the proscribed church goods were followed even into private hands; the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth inquiring, as did those of Edward VI. before them, whether there were known "any that keep in their houses any undefaced images, tables, pictures, paintings, or other monuments of feigned and false miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition, and do adore COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 53 them, and especially such as have been set up in churches, chapels, and oratories.'' Chalices that had been used at mass would come under these wide terms ; which, in conjunction with the bishops' visitations, at which it was strictly asked whether the chalices had been melted up, and " decent communion cups " provided in their place, account and more than account for the disappearance of the vessels of earlier use. The regret that every lover of art must feel deepens into horror at the relentless bigotry of the times when we read of the profane uses to which sacred things were put by way of desecrating them more effectually. One parish records that the pyx was defaced and given a*ay unto a child to play with ; another that its mass books were torn in pieces and sold to a pedlar to lap spices in ; a third that the vicar had made a swine's trough of the holy-water vat ; and that the sacring bell was used to hang about a calf's neck or at a horse's ear. All this in 1566. Chalices, owing to the precious metal of which they were made, fared a little better, and were usually melted up and re-formed into new vessels of the required shapes instead of being turned to profane use. Churchwardens' accounts are full of such exchanges, often noting the additional silver that was needed to make the cup larger, now that it would be required for the use of the laity. These changes were continually in progress from the accession of the queen down lo about 1580, when every church, even those in the most remote districts, seems to have been properly supplied. The new cup was of an invariable shape and style of decoration ; find it where you will, in London or the country, east or west, it has the same simple crossed band around the bowl, these bands often enclosing a waving line of foliage like woodbine ; and each cup has, or at all events had, its paten-cover fitting closely on to the lip and similarly decorated. The cover served also, to use the language of Archbishop Grindal's Visitation Articles, 1576, "for the ministration ofthe communion bread." 54 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. The Communion Cup still used in the Chapel of All Souls' College, Oxford, is of this type, and is of the year 1564, but it has two belts of the usual fashion, one round the middle and the second round the outer rim ofthe cup. Although it is of interest as representing this large and, histori cally speaking, important class of church vessels, it is not of any artistic value, and therefore it has not been thought necessary to reproduce it in fac-simile, especially as the South Kensington Museum already possesses an original example, which exhibits all the peculiarities of the cups made for the reformed use — the belt, the knopped stem and circular foot, also the paten-cover. It is num bered 1858. — 4636 in the Museum Catalogue, and probably be longed to some church in Devonshire, bearing, as it does, well known Exeter marks of about 1570 and the private mark of a man named John Jons, who made a similar cup, still in existence, for St. Petrock's Church, Exeter, and was paid i/. 15^'. ^d. for it, in addition to receiving the older chalice in exchange in 15 71. We have heard of Peter Peterson of Norwich, and now of John Jons of Exeter ; to these we may add the names of one Calton, " at the sign of the Purse, in Cheap," Robert Wigge, goldsmith of London, also John Palterton, Raufe Lathom, Thomas Metcalfe, Robert Reyns, and Fabyan Withers, all craftsmen who made and exchanged church-plate in the time of Edward VI. The name of a lady goldsmith, one Margery Herkins, of Lombard Street, also occurs. The best known names of the reign of Ehzabeth, in the same connection, were those of Thomas Mustchampe "at the sign of the Ring with the Rube, in Lombarde Street," Robert Tayleboys, and Thomas Turpyn. One Dericke was amongst the queen's goldsmiths at the beginning of the reign, succeeded a little later on by Hughe Kayle. At the Heralds' Visitation of London in 1568, Assabel, or Affabel, Partridge, is called " principal goldsmith" to her majesty. There will be nothing to say about more modern church-plate. It is sad enough to watch its con tinual falling off from the beautiful Gothic vessels which have been COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 55 so fondly dwelt upon until we get down to the tulip-shaped vases that do duty for chalices in the early part of the present century. Every rule has its exceptions, and we may find a few flagons or tankards, although no chalices, which are good examples of the art of decorating in repousse, used in their time. Two cf these we shall come to late in the sixteenth, others early in the following, century. Turn we then from church-plate to decorative and domestic. Of this there is abundance. Such as may have been made of gold has entirely disappeared, but even gold plate was used in profusion in the reign of Henry VIII. A banquet given by that monarch is mentioned in the introduction to the State Papers of the reign, published by order of the Master of the Rolls, at which two cupboards or sideboards reaching from floor to roof were covered with a large and varied assortment of vases all of massive gold, whilst silver-gilt dishes were used for the service of the meats. The number of stages in the buffet or sideboard indicated the rank of the owner. Queen Mary had vast possessions in goldsmith's work, and all through the reign of Queen Elizabeth the couit fashion of giving and receiving costly presents of plate on New Year's Day must have kept the goldsmiths of London employed throughout the year. The queen at this season presented all her officers and courtiers with some jewel or cup, and an offering in return of not less value was in each case expected, if not exacted. Of articles of table-plate, the " hour-glass " Salts, which have already been noticed, retained their popularity. The Countess Margaret of Richmond presented three, which are still preserved, to Christ's College, Cambridge, one of which is here engraved. Although of somewhat simpler finish and design these preserve the main features of the salts at New and Corpus Colleges, Oxford. A little Gothic work round the waist will still be observed. The Foundress' Beaker, also at Christ's College, is of the same year. It is curiously like a cup that is called the Founder's Cup, of a little eariier date, at Oriel College, Oxford. The latter is 56 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. diapered with chains of SS, and Lombardic letter SS's, which point to Prince Edward, son of Henry VI., rather than to Edward IL The hall-mark upon it is now ascertained to be the Pans mark for 1462,1 and it is curious to note that Queen Margaret HOUR-GLASS SALT, 1507, AT CHRIST S COLLEGE, CA.MBRIDGE. Hour-glass Salt, hexagonal in plan, with raised lobes, alternately orna mented with a large Tudor rose in repoussd, the other plain. The knop with rope and diaper pattern and six crockets ; the lid pynamidal, ornamented also with the Tudor rose. English work, 1507. Height, <)\ in. ; diam, 4f in. ^ Cripps's Old French Plate, p. 37. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 57 BEAKER, 1507, AT CHRIST S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE The beaker and cover is of silver-gilt, on a projecting base in form of a Tudor rose, \\ in. deep, battlemented and ornamented in repoussd, with bosses and stamped running enrichments, the base of the cup somewhat expanded, and having a chain fixed round it, the surface engraved with diaper, as described on p. 58; the cover battlemented and similarly diapered, sur mounted by a hexagonal ornament composed of six portcullises with a finial of four marguerites and a Tudor rose. Height, 9I in. ; diam. 5|- in. 58 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. fled to France in that year, after the disastrous battle of Towton, to solicit the aid of the French King for her husband and young son, then fugitives in Scotland, and remained in Paris for some months. The Cambridge beaker shows diapering of a similar character ; in this case the design being the Tudor rose and portcullis, with marguerites at each interlacing of the pattern ; the marguerites the emblem of the Countess Margaret's name, and the portcullis formed as its initial letter. To show that the hour-glass salt would be found on the table of gild in London as well as of college at Oxford or Cam bridge, we give an engraving of one that is almost the latest of them. It is of 1518, its fellow being of 1522. The pair are at Ironmongers' Hall, London. HOUR-GLASS SALT, 1518, AT IRONMONGERS* HALL, LONDON. 1880. — 22. Salt-cellar of silver and parcel gilt, having six-foiled sides, in three of which foliage is engraved. English work, 1518. Height, 5f in. ; diam. of base, 3f in. Though less in size and inferior in finish to the salts at Christ's College, the same alternate decorarion will be noticed in both examples. Returning for a moment to Christ's College, one more curious cup must be mentioned. Its date is a little uncertain, but it is COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 59 safe to put it at about 1520. The imbricated ornament is of repousse work, and the general shape of the cup and stem, as well as of the knop of the cover, will remind us of the Leigh Cup at STANDING-CUP, circU 1520, AT CHRIST S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. the Mercers' Hall, which has already been described (see p. 42). It bears upon the knop a curious coat-of-arms in enamel that may be thus described, viz.: — Arg. on a chevron sable 3 estoiles ofthe field betw. 3 adders' heads of the second, a crescent for difference. 6o COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. This is the reading of the coat given by an excellent antiquary, the late Mr. Albert Way, but it has never been found possible to identify it with the coat of any known benefactor. The most that can be said is that it somewhat resembles the arms of WiUiam Hughes, Bishop of St. Asaph in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a worthy of Christ's College. The next standing-cup of this century to come under our notice is a royal gift. Its simple and elegant form and appro- CUP AND COVER, 1523, AT BARBER SURGEONS* HALL, LONDON. 1876.— I. Cup of silver-gilt, the bowl plain, with four pendant bells, the cover repoussd' with, the rose, portcullis, and fleur-de-lys, and surmounted with the arms of Henry VIII. A band of flowers in repoussd work decorates the foot. English, 1523. Height, 1 1 in ; diam, 6 in. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 6i priate decoration are well shown in the accompanying engraving. It was presented to the Barber Surgeons' Company of London in 1540 by Henry VIII. Covered cups now, to a great extent, replace a hitherto familiar class of vessel which for the future is seen no more ; wood was going out of fashion fast in these more luxurious days, and the mazer bowl must disappear, even the curious mottling of the gnarled maple failing to commend itself to the goldsmith now that other and richer materials might be had. The small mazer on a stem, that is the most modern of the All Souls' series, preserves, however, the distinctive features of earlier bowls, even though it is of so late a date as 1529. Indeed, its Gothic fashion is hardly less marked than that of MAZER BOWL ON FOOT, I52Q, AT ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD, l88o. — 61. Mazer, mounted on silver-gilt foot and stem. English. date 1529. Height, 6 in ; diam. of bowl, 4 J in. 62 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. some of the others, although the cresting round the foot shows a good deal of Renaissance detail. Purely Gothic ornament is now fast disappearing. There is a very similar mazer, of about the same date as the last, from Corpus College, Cambridge, in the South Kensington series of reproductions. It bears the names of the three magi, Jasper, Melchior, and Balthazar, on the silver-gilt mount, and is called " The Three Kings' Cup." The names of the three kings were supposed by some to be a charm against the falling sickness. The student should here notice a silver-gilt jar of 1533, one of the possessions of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, as an example of the new style of treatment. 1880. — 64. An urn-shaped silver-gilt jar with a cover, the whole repoussd, and chased with bold foliated scroll patterns ; round the base is a running enrichment of scroll-work ; the curved handles spring from cornucopia-shaped ornaments, and the cover is surmounted by an ornament, supported on three dolphin brackets. English. Height, 7J in. : diam. at mouth, 3iin. This will be recognised as of more decided Renaissance cha racter than a Tazza cup of but little earlier date at the same college, with which it may be usefully compared. The Tazza (1880. — 63) is of the year 15 15. At length we come to fine examples of the ewers and basins, or salvers, that were in daily use amongst our ancestors in days when forks were not. They were handed before and after every meal, and sometimes after every course, the hands being held over the basin whilst warm or scented water was poured over them by the servitor, another attendant standing by with a fine cloth or napkin. The etiquette books of the fifteenth and six teenth centuries give many directions for the proper serving of the ewer and basin, "the water bote and colde,'' and the "napkyns." We must remember that persons ate off the same COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 63 dish and with the fingers, aided only with knife or spoon, forks being as yet unknown. Such a salver was the following, which was given, with its accompanying ewer, to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, together with much other plate, by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1570, though they are of somewhat earlier make. SALVER, IS45, AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 1880. — 79. Salver of silver-gilt, the edge ornamented with foliated arabesques, the centre similarly engraved, and having a series of depressions radiating from a central boss, the base of which is repoussd, or stamped with graceful interlaced arabesques. The top of the boss bears in champlev^ enamel the arms of Parker and the motto, " Mundus transit et concupicentia ejus, 1570." English, 1545. The ewer matches it, and the pair are admirable examples of the work of the last years of Henry VIII. The student will not fail to notice a very distinctive feature of Renaissance 64 COLLEGE AND CORPORATLON PLATE. ornamentation in the foliated arabesques that will carry us on for fifty or sixty years. They are as distinctive of the goldsmiths' work of the rest of the century, as the dolphin brackets that we first found in 1533. EWER, IS4S, AT CORPUS CHEISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, 1870. — 79A, The ewer is of silver-gilt, to match the foregoing salver of the same-year ; its body is octagonal, with an angular spout, having a heart-shaped orifice ; the base is stamped with orna ment in short lengths of i \ inches ; the boss in the centre of the lid is enamelled with the arms of the college, impaling the coat of Parker. There is less and less of enamel to be seen at every step we take. At the beginning of the century it is an invariable feature in the decoration used for important pieces ; by the middle of it enamelled surfaces or bands are found no more, the most that may be expected is a coat of arms or other device on some boss or " print," and later on even a coat-of-arms would be COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 65 given in repousse work or engraving, and enamels disappear altogether. At Corpus Christi College Oxford is a salt of the new school, as decided a step in art history as the ewer and salver take us at Cambridge. The hour-glass salt is found no more, and the standing salt, circular or square, on feet, still with a cover, takes its place. The cartouches, foliated scrolls, and the statuette of an amorino on the lid, bearing staff and shield, are distinctive of the sixteenth century, 1880, — 65. Standing Salt and cover of silver-gilt, repoussd, and en- . graved. It is of circular form, and has three principal car touches, with central bosses, the intervals ornamented with fohated scroll-work ; the lid to match, surmounted with statuette of an amoi-ino, bearing a staff" and shield. Date, 1554. jJThe Falcon Cup at Clare College, Cambridge (1880. — 84), should be mentioned for the purpose of pointing out that it is of foreign workmanship, probably coming from Antwerp. It is an early example in point of date of the fashion, afterwards not uncommon, of forming cups as birds, animals, windmills, or other objects, some of them very quaint and grotesque. These were specially popular in Holland and Germany ; but there are well-known specimens in England, amongst the most important being the Cockayne Cups of the Skinners' Company, a set formed as cocks, in allusion to the donor's name. The Falcon Cup is of about the year 1550. The Cockayne Cups are of 1605. Mounted jugs of stoneware, the jugs themselves brought usually from Cologne, were very popular in the early days of Queen Ehzabeth, and they are now eagerly sought for by col lectors- The specimen at Vintners' Hall is a very good example of Ehzabethan decoration, the neck mounts showing the engraved bands and woodbine fohage that is so distinctive a feature in the church cups of the same period. The lid shows the repousse K 66 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. work, also so characteristic of the time, the cartouches of lions' heads, masks, fruit and flowers being especially popular. These jugs are found from the middle to the end of the century, but then fell out of use. STONEWARE JUG, 1562, AT VINTNERS* HALL, LONDON. There is no more curious cup in the whole collection of re productions at South Kensington than the standing cup with cover, called Queen Mary's Cup, at Perth (1880. — 42). It is a composite cup, formed cf a very finely chased body of Nuremberg work, c. 1 560-1 5 70, of the best kind, with some additions and repairs COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 67 of coarser and commoner work, executed at Dundee, as records testify, in 1637. The curious Scotch hall-marks bear out the record ; the maker's mark being a known one of that period.i The vessels now called tankards, though the word itself seems somewhat differently applied in days earlier than the sixteenth century, come in at about the same time as the mounted stone ware jugs. No article of plate called by this name occurs before about 1575; more anciently tankards were the wooden tubs, hooped with iron, that were used for carrying water from the conduits. Silver tankards are mentioned, however, in a will of 1576, and one well-known etymologist goes so far as to derive their name from the twang or sound the lid makes on shutting it. Some may think it less fanciful to connect it with " tank,'' and to derive both "tank '' and "tankard " from the French estang. A tankard rather than a cup is the so-called "Poison Cup'" at Clare College, Cambridge, of which an engraving is given (p. 68). Here again we observe the waving bands of woodbine fashion that are so prevalent for the time ; but the crystal set in the lid must also be noticed, reminding us as it does of the precautions taken by our forefathers against being poisoned. The greatest person ages had both their meat and drink assayed or tasted by those who served them before they ventured themselves to partake of either; and a further precaution was to make the cup of one or other of the substances, which were popularly supposed to have the power of revealing the presence of poison in any beverage with which it might be filled. Certain horns were of this class, and certain crystals were believed to become clouded if brought into contact with poisons. Such a crystal is that found in the lid of the Clare College tankard, hdhce called the "Poison Cup." It was presented by Dn Butler, a celebrated physician, temp. James I. Persons even of the middle rank had their beverages tested, although not their meats ; a small cup, called a cup of assay, was ^ Cripps's Old Engli-Ji Plate, p. 147. 68 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. used for this purpose, or sometimes the hd of the cup that was being handed. THE "POISO-W CUP, Circa 1570, AT glare college, CAMBRIDGE. 1800. — 90. A glass tankard, mounted in silver-gilt, the drum inclosed in a filigree wire casing, the whole resting on three cherubs' heads. A band at the base is thinly engraved with floral patterns ; above is a band of strapwork, and minute floral ornament with projecting masks ; the mouth encircled with bands similar to the foot. The cover is flat, with a crystal set in a plain band, surrounded with the same kind of filigree wire ornament as the drum. English, Height, 7 in. ; diam. of cover, 3i in. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 69 Another tankard, entirely of serpentine, and with its silver mounts and lid ornamented in the usual Elizabethan manner, of which we have seen so much, is preserved with the Poison tankard at Clare College. This last is also reproduced for the Museum (1880. — 85), but does not require more detailed notice here. Serpentine was always valued : it will be remembered that nearly a hundred years before the date of this tankard green ser pentine was found in a goldsmith's shop at York. At length we come to some Apostles' Spoons, which the reader may, perhaps, be surprised not to have heard of before. This sort of spoon is not as ancient as is popularly supposed. A careful examination of old inventories shows that they did not come into fashion much before the commencement of the sixteenth century. Earlier spoons seem to have been of more simple design. The acorn-head was popular a hundred years before ; and in 1450, or thereabouts, spoons are found with the image of the Blessed Virgin at the ends of the handles, such spoons as these being often called " maidenhead " spoons. Bishop Fox's spoons at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, have owls on the handles. These are of 1506. Seal-headed spoons are found from 1450 down to about 1650 or 1660. To return to Apostles' Spoons. It seems to have been an old custom for sponsors at christenings to give one or more such spoons to the child for whom they answered ; usually the spoon would bear the figure of the saint in honour of whom the child was named, or the patron saint of the donor, each apostle being distinguished by his own particular emblem. The fashion of such spoons, which are now much prized, may be seen from our engraving of one selected from a set given by Archbishop Parker, with other plate already spoken of, to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The heads of three others of the same set are added to show some of the various emblems by which one apostle is distinguished from another. 70 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. Complete sets of thirteen spoons, representing Our Saviour and the whole twelve apostles, are of extreme rarity. No such set is in the possession of any college or corporation so far as is known to the author, but the corporation of Hedon possesses some spoons of a set which is known to have been once complete. The nearest approach to a complete set, by which is to be under stood a set made by the same hand and at the same time, is this APUSTLES' SPOONS, 1566, AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 1880.— 73-76. Four apostles' spoons, of a set of thirteen such spoons given by Archbishop Parker to Corpus Christi College, Cam bridge. One is of 1515, the others of 1566. Leng h, 7j in. at Corpus College, there being thirteen spoons, representing Our Saviour and the twelve apostles, but one single spoon, probably representing St. Paul, who is sometimes included in place of St. Jude, is of an earlier date than the rest, which are of the year 1566. St. Paul is known by the sword {see engraving). The custom of giving such spoons at christenings was on the wane in the middle of the seventeenth century, after which they are no longer found. Together with his spoons the archbishop gave the same college a very fine standing-cup, which may stand for a type of the tall hanap of this period, and is engraved on the opposite page. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 71 STANDING-CUP, I569, AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 72 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 1880.— 69. Silver-gilt standing cup, with cover, richly ornamented over the whole surface with repousse work and chasing, on a baluster stem, which, together with the base in which the cup rests, is repoussd with grotesque masks, fruit, and flowers ; the drum is chased with strapwork and fohated arabesques, having three medallions of repoussd work, containing female heads in high relief; the expanding lip is also chased, and shows three cherubs' heads in relief ; the cover is similarly ornamented, and has a nude male statuette upon the top, leaning on a rod, and holding a blank escutcheon. An inscription records its gift to the college in the very year the hall-mark shows it was made, 1569. Its height is 21^ in. ; and diam. at hp, 5j iu. The tankard of the year 15 71, still keeping us to the magnificent gifts of the archbishop, was probably intended from the first for a communion flagon. It (1880. — 77) much resembles one at Oxford, which, though not -reproduced for the Museum, has been selected for engraving here. Both may in this way be con sulted by the student. The Cambridge example is repousse with two bands of ara besques, and three circular medallions, with masks in high relief within laurel wreaths ; the lid is ornamented to match, with three helmeted masks, and is furnished with a band of imbricated orna ment round the edge, which is repeated round the base of the tankard ; this is stamped in lengths and finished by hand. It is 6J in. high; diam. at top, 2| in. The Ashmolean Museum tankard is of the year 1574, and is engraved opposite. 'It is of silver-gilt, with straight sides, tapering to the lop, having two chased belts of egg and tongue ornament, and a third round the cover. The engraved bands on the drum interlacing, and with flowers between them, are now familiar to us, and the same may be said of the cartouches, lions' heads, fruit, and medallions with female heads, which appear upon the cover. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 73 TANKARD, 157^, IN THE ASH.'.IOLEAN MUSEU.M, OXFORD. 74 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. A cocoa-nut cup, at New College, Oxford, bearing an inscrip tion which records the death of one Katharine Bay lye in 1600, is decorated in very similar fashion. It was mounted in 1584, and it is engraved as affording an excellent examjjle of the stem and foot that would be given to any standing cup in Elizabethan times. COCOA-^UT CUP, I58.J, AT NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD. After the lapse of half a century it is time to introduce a second example of the basins, which are unusually fine at this period. The silver parcel-gilt basin, given by William Ofley to the Merchant Taylors' Company of London, is one that may be selected to represent them {see engraving opposite). COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 75 A provincial corporation may now fitly be turned to for the purpose of supplying us with a pair of most beautiful objects to represent the work of the last few years of the sixteenth century. SILVER BASIN, PARCEL-GILT. 159O, AT MERCHANT TAYLORS HALL, LONDON. 3. — 13. Basin of silver parcel-gilt. In the centre the arms of Ofley, then lately granted, viz. a cross flory between four birds. Round the boss on which these arms appear are three panels inclosing lions' heads between swaggs of flowers. English, 1590. Diam. 29 in. Together with much other fine plate the Corporation of Norwich can boast of the ewer and salver which come next on the list. First for the ewer. 76 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. W^^p!^ 1^9 p^^^^'S lil^^^w;^ , 3597, THE PROPERTY OF THE CORPORATION OF N3KW1CH. i86i. — I. Oviform ewer of repousse or beaten work, w'ith grotesque handle formed by a sea nymph and dolphin ; triumph and pro cession of sea deities in high relief round the neck, body, and foot of the vessel. English, 1597. Height, 14J in. COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE 77 ^ The salvei- which accompanies it is of equal merit, and tlie pair are a possession of considerable importance. SAL\ER, 1597. TO MATCH THE PRECEDING EWER, THE PROPERTY OF THE CORPORATION OF NORWICH, 1861. — 2. Salver to match the preceding ewer, repoussd, wAh. the triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite ; cupids on sea-monsters, gro tesques, and fruit in relief round the rim. In the centre has been inserted, at some time or other an inappropriate medal lion, on which is represented Christ washing the feet of His disciples. English, 1597. Diam. i/f in. It may possibly be thought that the Norwich ewer marks a definite step in the history of the art, taking us on from the liens' 78 COLLEGE AND CORPORA! ION PLATE. heads, the cartouches and strapwork, of the middle of the cen tury, to the marine attributes which are so characteristic of its termination. The most casual observer will note the dependence upon orna ment rather than upon form that marks the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and will appreciate the difference between such examples as the Norwich ewer of 1597 and the Barber Sur geons' cup of 1523. Elaboration of detail takes the place of a more elegant simplicity. It may be added that an extremely similar ewer and salver are in the possession of the Corporation of Bristol. The salver was stolen during the Bristol riots of 1831, and cut by the thief into 167 pieces, which were, however, fortunately recovered soon after wards, and joined together very skilfully by a silversmith of Bristol, who riveted them all to a silver plate, which now forms the back of the salver. Lastly, returning to Cambridge, we close our list of examples for the Renaissance century with a cup which, if the last of all, is the best of all. It is the Founder's Cup at Emmanuel College (1880.— 81). Although attributed by its owners to Cellini, and, it must be confessed, not bearing any hall-mark that may secure for some English artist the credit of having executed this beautiful cup, it has been from time immemorial in England, at all events, from the very foundation of the college, which is about the period at which the fashion of the cup tells of itself that it was made. There is much in the shell-work, the horses' heads, and the scroll figures with female busts that recalls the known work of Cellini to the mind, but we may be spared the duty of identifying it with any foreign master hand. It is, perhaps, rathfer too late in style for the great master, who died in 1571, and was at his best years before. He worked in France from 1540 to 1545, after which Francis I. was no longer able to retain his services, and he returned to Italy, COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 79 THE FOUiNDER'S CUP, i6TH CENTURY, AT E.M.MANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 1880. — 81. Cup of tazza form, the finial of the cover supported by four demi-seahorses, the cover itself repoussd with shells and other marine attributes. The bowl is plain around the lip, but surrounded lower down with a twisted cable, below which appear four large shells between shell-fish, all in "high relief, harpies with upstretched arms forming bracket supports ; the knop of the stem, on which their feet rest, is repousse in high relief with four masks, between which are as many bent scroll-like arms ; the foot is circular and ornamented to match. The interior of the bowl is as richly worked in repoussd and chasing, with nude figures and marine monsters. Total height, i5j in. ; width of cover, 10 in. ; width of base, 6 in. So COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. There is no such change of style to note at the termination of the century as at its commencement; the forms and workm.anship of the reign of Queen Elizabeth maintain themselves throughout the times of James' I. and his unfortunate successor. We must, however, reserve the days of these kings, of the Commonwealth^ and the reign of the Merry Monarch, for the next chapter. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OP REMARKABLE SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH PLATE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, OF MOST OF WHICH REPRODUCTIONS IN ELECTROTYPE MAY BE FOUND IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. THE MUSEUM CATALOGUE NUMBER IS PREFIXED TO SUCH SPECIMENS. 1880. — 48. Cocoa-nut Cup and cover, silver-gilt. Above the flat rim of the base is a band of quatrefoil tracery ; the stem is formed by fourteen thin bars resting on leaves. The three upright flat bands enclosing the cup support the plain band forming the -rim. Around the edge of the cover is a rim of small Gothic cresting, and on the top is a ball enclosed in leaves of Gothic openwork. English, sixteenth century. Height, 10 in. ;- diam. at mouth of cup, 3 in. ; diam. of base, 4 in. Exeter College, Oxford. 1880. — 104. Liqueur or Spirit- barrel, silver-gilt, being a tun on waggon, formerly the property of the College of St. Thomas of Aeon ; ornamented with enamels, four dolphins, on apex an eagle on a globe. Early sixteenth century. Mercers' Company, London. Hour-glass Salt. (See page 56.) Christ's College, Cambridge. The Foundress' Beaker and cover, 1507. (Seepage 57.) Christ's College, Cambridge. Bishop Fox's Chalice, 1507. (See page 50.) Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 1880.— 63. Tazza Cup and cover, gadrooned, and ornamented with stamped pattern, silver-gilt. 151 S- Corpus Christi College, Oxford. t88o.— 22. Salt-cellar, parcel-gilt, shaped like an hour-glass, (See page 58.) Ironmongers' Hall, London. 1876.— I. Cup and cover, 1523, (See page 60,) Barber Surgeons' , Hall, London. M 82 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. Sir Thomas Pope's Chalice, 1J27. (See page 51.) Trinity College, Oxford. 1880.- — 61. Mazer, mounted on silver-gilt stem. 1529. (See page 61.) All Souls' College, Oxford. 1880. — 67. Mazer, with stem and foot, called the "Three Kings' Cup." (See page 62.) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 1880. — 64. Urn-shaped Jar and cover, silver-gilt. 1533. (See page 62.) Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 1880. — 51. Cocoa-nut Cup. The base standing on three small lion supports, a trumpet-shaped stem, upon which stands the nut, enclosed by three bands of double trefoil open ornament ; the mouth has a plain rim. Height, 7 in. ; diam. at mouth, 3^ in. Queen's College, Oxford. 1880. — 79 and 79A. Silver-gilt Ewer and Salver. 1545. (See page 63 & 64.) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 1880. — 65. Salt and cover, ornamented in repoussd and engraved, silver-gilt. 1554. (See page 65.) Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 1 880. — 84. Cup, silver-gilt, in form of a falcon, standing on an oblong coffret as pedestal. The bird and the lid of the coffret are wrought in repoussd work, and finished with a graver. The sides of the coffret are engraved with foliated grotesques, and in front is a medallion with laurelled bust ; ring handles in monsters' heads are attached to the ends. Left to the college by Dr, Butler. Made at Antwerp about ISSO- Height, iij in. (See page 65.) Clare College, Cambridge. Stoneware Jug. 1562. (See page 66.) Vintners' Hall, London. 1880. — 42. Queen Mary's Cup and cover, c. 1560-1570 ; the additions and repairs of 1637. (See page 66.) Perth Cathedral. 1865. — 82. Salt-cellar on high pedestal, chased with foliage and allegorical figure, subjects in circular medallions, the summit crowned by a small statuette of a warrior. The original, of silver-gilt, forms part of the regalia in the Tower of London. English. Date about 1560. Height, 13^ in. ; diam. 6 in. 1880, — 90. Tankard known as " The Poison Cup," c. 1565. (Seepage 68.) Clare College, Cambridge. J 880. — 85. Tankard, serpentine, mounted in silver-gilt. The base with a minute tooth-pattern band, the upper part serrated, a thin band uniting the handle at the lower part, the upper part attached to a band of small repoussd ornament, and a wider band engraved with birds. The cover has repousse strapwork COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. 83 ornament, with masks, fruit, and flowers. A winged demi- figure with helmet forms the rest of the hinge. The handle engraved with floral ornament. English ; c. 1565, Height, 8 in. ; diam. 4j in. ; diam. of mouth, 3 in. (See page 69.) Clare College, Cambridge. 1872. — 15. Goblet. The stem carved in high relief with masks, snails, lions, &c. English. Hall-mark, 1567. The original, of agate, mounted in silver-gilt, is in the South Kensington Museum, No. 38-' 67. Height, 7 j in. ; diam, 3| in. 1875. — 24. Sugar-sifter. The original, of silver-gilt, ornamented with figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, in chased openwork, cherub heads, and cupids amongst flowers, is in the South Ken sington Museum, No. 55i-'74. On the hd is St. George of England with a French inscription. English ; temp. Elizabeth. Height, (i\ in. ; diam 3J in. 1880. — 73-76. Four Apostles' Spoons, selected from those given by Archbishop Parker. 1566. (See page 70.) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 1880. — 69, Silver-gilt Cup and cover. 1569. (See page 71.) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 1880. — tT. Silver-gilt Tankard. 1571. (See page 72.) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Tankard. 1574- (See page 73.) The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 1880. — 54. Cocoa-nut Cup and cover, presented by Katharine Bayly e. 1584. New College, Oxford. 1880. — 13. Rose-water Dish, given by William Cfley. 1590, (See page 75.) Merchant Taylors' Hall, London, 1880. — 12. Mace, said to have been made by one Duckett in 1597, he being beadle, to replace an earlier one, which he had lost. Merchant Taylors' Hall, London. 1868.— 85. Ewer, chased with strapwork, cartouches, &c. The original of silver-gilt, is the property of her Majesty the Queen, and forms part of the Royal collection of plate at Windsor Castle. English. Date 1597. Height, 14 in.; width, 18 in. 1868.— 86- Salver, chased with strapwork, cartouches, &c. The original, of silver-gilt, is the property of her Majesty the Queen, and forms part of the Royal collection of plate at Wind sor Castle. English. Date 1597. Diam. 19 in. 1861. — I, Ewer, oviform, of repoussd or beaten work, with grotesque handle, formed by a sea-nymph and dolphin ; triumphs and procession of sea deities in high relief round the neck, body, 84 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. and foot of the vessel. Enghsh, 1597. In the possession of the Corporation of Norwich. Height, I4j in. (See page 76.) i86l, — 2. Saher, repoussd or beaten work ; the triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite ; cupids on sea monsters, grotesques, and fruit in relief round the rim. In the centre.is inserted a medallion, on which is represented Christ washing the disciples' feet. English. Hall-mark, 1597. In the possession of the Corpora tion of Norwich. Diam.. 17! in. (See page jy.) '863. — 24. Salver, repoussd or beaten work of dolphins arid fruit, and engraved with foliated scrolls ; on a raised centre, a coat of arms. English. Hall-mark, 1599. In the possession of Lord Delamere, Diam. 191 in, 1880. — 81. The Founder's Cup, silver-gilt. Sixteenth century. Emmanuel College, Cambridge. (See page 79.) CHAPTER IV. THE CENTURY OF THE STUARTS. Prosperity interrupted by the Civil War — Scarcity of Plate under the Common wealth — The London Goldsmiths of the Seventeenth Century — Country work— Destruction of Plate at the end of the Century — Examples of Decorative Plate. The prosperity that favoured the industrial arts throughout the times covered by the last chapter lasted in full force well into the seventeenth century, at least for the first forty years of it. Rich cor porations, parishes, and private individuals are all lavishing money on plate as much as in the best years of Queen Elizabeth's reign ; and the goldsmith is continually increasing in wealth and social importance. Splendid plate of English make is to be found in the Imperial Treasuries of Russia, that must have been presented by King Janies I. and his ambassadors. The credit of the Goldsmiths' Company for honest work was well maintained, and its hall marks were then, as they have been ever since, accepted as an unquestion able guarantee ofthe quality ofthe metal on which they appeared. Under the warrants for the forced loans raised by King Charles I. to meet the necessities of war in 1643, marked plate was accepted in lieu of money at the rate of five shillings an ounce, whereas other silver ware was reckoned at four shillings and four- pence only. The outbreak of the Civil War ended, of course, the history of plate-making for an interval. Everything of intrinsic value was melted up, little was manufactured to replace it from 1643 to the death of the king; and the severity of Puritan manners did nothing 86 COLLEGE AND CORPORATION PLATE. to encourage the goldsmith's art for the period of the Common wealth, The craft had, however, made the most of the pros perous times that preceded these calamities, A number of fine examples may be found to represent every single year down to 1642, but it has been a matter of time and difficulty to find even eight individual pieces made in the whole eight years from 1642 to 1649, ^" l°> '3 Chalices 13, 49 ChatideUers . . 107, 121, 132, 133 Christ's College, Cambridge, 34, 55, 56, 57. 59, 81 Chocolate pot .,,,.. 141 Church plate, desecration of . . 53 Cisterns 129, 132 Civil War, effect ofthe ... 85 Clare College, Cambridge, 65, 67, 82, 83, 170, 145 et seg. Clothworkers' Company, London, 100 loi, 108, 114, 116, 118, 122, 149 Cocoa nuts, cups formed of, 36, 72, "5 Coffee pot 139 Commonwealth plate, variety of. 86 Communion cups 53 Corpus Christi College, Cam bridge, 27, 37, 62, 63, 64, 65, 69, 71, 81, 82, 83, 114, IIS Corpus Christi CoUege, Oxford, 39, 50, 62, 69, 81, 82 Cups, early, what made of . . 19 Cups, pet names given to . . . 19 Delamere, Lord 84 Dinner services, introduction of . 129 Dunstan, .St., patron of the EngUsh goldsmiths ... 4 Elizabethan times, prosperity of . 46 Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 78, 84, 93, 115, 116, 118 Enamels, the various kinds of . 5, 8 Enamelling, early English . . 15 Ethelwolf, ring of king ... 5 Ewers, basins and, 18, 62, 64, 76, 136 Exeter College, Oxford, 81, 92, 103, 115, 116 Exeter, goldsmiths of .... 54 Flaxman, designs cf Forks 12S 86 154 INDEX. PAGE Frauds, thirteenth century . . 15 French and English plate com pared 128 Furniture, articles of silver, 106, 118, 119, 120, 122 Georgian period, the .... 128 Gilds, rise of the trade . . . 13 Gloucester candlestick, the . . 11 Gold plate, rarity of ... . 102 Goldsmiths' Company of London, supervision exercised by, 15, 21, 47 Goldsmiths' Company of London, their plate, 116, 136, 137, 146 Goldsmiths, leading London, 21, 54, 126 Gothic ornament 27 Gothic period, the 20 Gourds, cups formed as ... 95 Grocers' Company, London . .119 Haberdashere' Company, Lon don, 97, 98, 99, IIS, i'6> iiS, 121, 133, \i,\etseq. Hanaps 19 Holbein, designs of .... 48 Horns, wassail . . ... 25 Plour-glass salts . . . .39, 56, 58 Ireland, ancient Celtic goldwork in 6, 13 Ireland, tankards made in . .111 Ironmongers' Company, London, 33, 58, 81, 145 et seq. John's, St., College, Cambridge, 93, 115, 119 Knole collection, the, 104, 105, 106, 107, 119, 120, 121, 123 Lamerie, Paul . . , , 128, 138 Leopard's head, mark of the . . 15 Limoges, cradle of the art in ¦Western Europe .... 4 Louis Quinze, period of . 128, 132 Louise Seize, period of , . . 138 Lynn, the "King John" cup at King's 24 Maces, ancient 34 Marks, London silversmiths' . .124 Martial, St., patron of the French goldsmiths , , , 4 Mazers 18, 30, 61 Mercers' Company, London, 40, 81, 91, 112, 114, 121, 146 Merchant Taylors' Company, London, 75, 83, 90, III, 1x5, 120, 121, 142, 144 et seq. Monaghan, St., shrine of . . , 13 Monks, their skill as goldsmiths, 4, 6 Monteiths , , , . 129, 130, 144 New CoUege, Oxford, 27, 37, 39, 41, 72,83 Norman period, the .... 8 Norwich, corporation of, 76, 77, 84, 96 Norwich, goldsmiths of ... 47 Ostrich ej;gs, cups formed of, 37, 92, US Paris, the touch of 14 Patens 51 Patrick, St., cover of beU of . . 9 Pembroke College, Cambridge, 32, 38 Perth Church, cup at . . . 66, 82 Plate, scarcity of ancient ... 23 Queen's College, Oxford, 25, 116, 147 Regalia, the, 82, loi, 114, 117, 122 Renaissance, the period of the . 43 Rococo period, the 128 Romanesque period, the ... 8 Saddlers' Company, London, 93, no, 115, 118, 121, 122, 123 Salts, standing, 28, 39, 56, 97, loi, 1X2 Salters' Company, London, X28, X39, 147 Saxons, goldwork of the . . . 5, 6 INDEX. 155 PAGE PACK Saxons, art amongst the ... 6 Urns, tea X40 Sconces X20 Scotland, the goldsmiths of . . 23 Skinners' Company, London . 65 Vintners' Hall, London, 65, 82, X44 Spoons, various forms of, 17,69, 1X2, 13s Stoneware jugs 65 Wardens of the Goldsmiths' Company, first notice of the 14 Tankard, the word 67 Wardens of the Goldsmiths' Tankards .... 67, 95, 118, 120 Company, powers of the , 2X Tea-kettles 134 Windsor Castle, the royal coUec- Tea-spoons 135 tion at, 83, X04, 118, 122, 134, Transition period, the , , , , xo 146*'?^^^ Trinity College, Dublin, 122, X23, 144, 150 Trinity College, Oxford . . 51,82 York, mediEeval goldsmiths of , 21 THE END, LONDON : K. Clay, Sons, and Taylor, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C.