382 Old Church Plate m Wilts. 



the following inscription : " Jehu Francker, Elias Chalke, Chvrch 

 Wardens, 1683. This Is Part of The Goods of The Church of Wilton." 

 These ugly cumbrous vessels are still occasionally met with, and 

 illustrate very forcibly the low state of art and indifference which 

 prevailed at the end of the seventeenth century. 



WiSHFORD. An interesting Chalice or tazza-shaped cup is pre- 

 served here of a somewhat unusual form; the bowl is broad and 

 rather shallow, taking something of the shape of an inverted cone. It 

 has a baluster stem with full knop, and a small circular base. The 

 height is 5|in., the diameter of the bowl the same, the diameter of 

 the foot Sjin. The date-mark is a well-defined black-letter small t-, 

 indicating the year 1576. The maker's mark is a shield containing 

 three leaves placed star-wise, with a pellet between each. The 

 surface, with the exception of a narrow rim outside the lip, has been 

 tooled or frosted over in fine lines, somewhat in the style which was 

 in vogue about the middle of the following century. There is no 

 other mark to indicate whether it was made for ecclesiastical or 

 secular use. If it was intended for a chalice it is an interesting 

 specimen of something like a retention of the old form — on the 

 other hand it was made just at the time when Churches were 

 abundantly supplied with the new Elizabethan cups and covers, 

 which retained nothing of the old chalice and paten forms. Upon 

 the whole the probabilities are that it is one of the elegant cups, 

 made somewhat in the shape of the Venetian glass tazze, which 

 came into use about 1570 and lasted till the outbreak of the Civil 

 Wars. 



A large Chalice of silver-gilt, the bowl having straight sides and 

 a heavy low stem with broad foot. It measures 7jin. in height. 



A Paten, with foot, is 5|in. in diameter. The hall-mark gives the 

 date 1679. The maker's mark is a water bird within a dotted circle. 

 This is, with one exception, the last instance known of the use of a 

 symbolic sign for a maker's mark, unaccompanied by any initial 

 letters. They hardly ever occur later than the commencement of 

 the seventeenth century. On the foot of the chalice is inscribed : 

 "Dedicated to Wishford Church," and on the bowl the arms of Howe, 



