J 5° 



<®\x a J&e&ifcbal paten at ^artsDowe, 



By W. H. St. John Hope, M.A., F.S.A. 



HE paten represented so clearly on the accompanying 

 platinotype (Plate X.), by Mr. Keene, of Derby, is the 

 second one of mediaeval date I have met with while 

 examining the church plate of Derbyshire. Its discovery is, how- 

 ever, directly due to an entry in the records of the parish of 

 Hartshorne,* to which it belongs, stating that among the church 

 goods in 1612 were "a communion cupp of silver w th a plate of 

 Silver having Ihon Bapt d head vppon it." A copy of this entry 

 was sent to me by Dr. Cox, who suggested that if the " plate of 

 silver " was still at Hartshorne, it was probably a mediaeval paten, 

 like that at Shijjley, with the Vernicle ; the device having been 

 quite excusably described by the 17th century churchwarden as 

 St. John Baptist's head. On visiting Hartshorne I found Dr. 

 Cox's suggestion to be correct. 



The paten is of silver parcel-gilt; it measures 5 J inches in 

 diameter and is of a common type that prevailed from circa 1450 

 to circa 1530. The rim is quite plain, with the exception of 

 four narrow lines engraved on the extreme edge. The centre has 

 a circular depression, which again contains a slightly sunk sexfoil 

 with the spandrils filled with a rayed leaf ornament. The central 

 device is a Vernicle, engraved on a circular plate with a glory of 

 short rays around. 





* Printed in Vol. vii. of our Transactions. 



