VESSEL FOR WESTMINSTER "CRYPT CHAPEL"

Chronicle (Levin), 8 January 1947, Page 8

VESSEL FOR WESTMINSTER "CRYPT CHAPEL"

. • . : LONDON. i The Elizabethan silvev clialice and j paten, recently subscribed for by members of , Parliament for use in the Chapel of St. Al ary Undercroft, the "Urypt Chapel," Palaee of Westminster, were made in Lpndon in 1571. Tlie I chalite hears the maker's mark M G eonjoined in a lieart-shaped shield while.j the paten appears to have been made by another smitli whose mark is sliapeil somewhat as a eompound leaf. i It is a matter of conjecture wdiy the! two pieces bear different maker's! inarks. It is possible that the making of the eover was farmed out to another smith while the ehaliee was being made or that the e.luireh possessed two chal-ices-and paten s of similar size and at the time of disposal the parts were interchanged, in which case there may still exist another clialice and paten of the same year as this one, but with two different maker's marks. This- vessel is of the typical form made in the latter lialf of the sixteenth century, being U-shaped in body and having a band of engraved fpliiited scrolls enclosed within panelling encircling the body. Tlie stem-is divided by a circular Ross and rests on a domed foot, the border of which is decorated with an edging of stamped egg and tongue oi'nament. The whole clialice with its paten measures seven and three quarter iiiches in height. The. foot of the paten is engraved with the date of 1574, evidently the vcar of the presentation toMhe church to which it was originally given. There is no means of knowing what Church fhe ehaliee and paten came from orightal|y unless by any cha'nee some ehureh has the cofresponding ehaliee and ptea ref^rsrad to ahove.