4 RELICS LEFT BY PHILIP AND JOAN OF CASTILE. 



The next objects I would mention are the two Oriental 

 Chinese Porcelain Bowls, one of which is enclosed in a hand- 

 some silver-gilt mount of strap-work, 'bearing London hall 

 marks inside, dated 1549. This date being over 40 years 

 subsequent to their presentation to Sir Thomas Trenchard 

 shews that the mounting must have been added by the 

 Trenchards, long perhaps after the bowls came into their 

 possession, and no doubt it was added to do honour to Philip 

 and Joan's gift. The bowls themselves are of ordinary 

 shape and appearance, 7 or 8 inches in diameter ; and one of 

 them (the one mounted in the strap-work mentioned) is 

 considered by experts to be the better one of the two . They are 

 said to belong to the middle of the Chinese " Ming Dynasty," 

 or possibly earlier, i.e., 1465-1488 A.D, and are of blue 

 and white ware, decorated with flowers, and inside are repre- 

 sented four fish swimming round another fish enclosed in a 

 circle in the centre. Nothing appears to be known of the 

 silver-gilt mounting, nor have I ever heard any explanation 

 of its details. A figure of the bowl is given by Mr. W. G. 

 Gulland in Vol. II. of " Chinese Pottery," second edition, 

 1902, p. 277, figs. 486, 487. This figure, however, was 

 engraved from a very inferior photograph, and gives no clear 

 representation of its details. The figures given in the present 

 paper are much more accurate in their details, especially of 

 the strap-mounting. A figure of the bowl is also given by 

 Mr. Sydney Heath and Mr. W. de C. Prideaux in " Some 

 Dorset Manor Houses," 1907, facing p. 38. But this figure, 

 engraved from the same above-mentioned inferior photo- 

 graph, also shows its imperfections. It may be mentioned 

 here that the silver-gilt mounting of the bowl is said to be in 

 the " Renaissance style " of the date which it bears, being 

 thus as before observed many years subsequent to the gift of 

 it by Philip and Joan to Sir Thomas Trenchard, and to have 

 nothing Moorish in its character. The above two portraits 

 and the bowls are in the possession of Mrs. F. G. A. 

 Lane, of Bloxworth House, daughter of the late Colonel 

 Jocelyn Pickard-Cambridge and grand-daughter of the late 



