ON A MEDIAEVAL PATEN AT HARTSHORNE. 151 



The hall marks are three in number — 



(1) The maker's mark — an uncusped Lombardic capital B, 



in a dotted circle. 



(2) The leopard's head crowned. 



(3) The date letter. 



Unfortunately the last has been so obliterated that it is not 

 possible to say with certainty what it was, or we could have known 

 in what year the paten was made. 



The "communion cupp of silver" now at Hartshorne may be 

 the one there in 1612. It bears the London hall marks for 

 1611-12, and the inscription 



Justus fide vivet + I + R + C. 

 1612. 



It is of a common type of the period, and a very good example 

 of it. The letters I. R. C, I take to signify the " James Royll, 

 Churchwarden" of 1612. 



Recent researches by Mr. T. M. Fallow and myself, have 

 brought to light over seventy mediaeval English patens. It may 

 perhaps be useful to give the classification we have drawn up, after 

 an exhaustive analysis of the various features of the patens them- 

 selves : — 



Form I. A plate with plain circular depression with an inner 



second depression multifoil in outline. 

 Form II. A plate with one impression only, either circular or 



multifoil. 

 Type A (Form I.) Lower depression quatrefoil ; central 



device uncertain. Date circa 1180 — circa 1260 

 Type B (Form II.) Depression octofoil or multiple ; central 

 device usually the manus Dei.* Date, circa 1260 — circa 

 1300. 

 Type C (Form I.) Lower depression sexfoil with plain cusps ; 

 central device various, but mostly the manus Dei. Date 

 circa 1300 to circa 1350. 



* Or hand of God in the act of blessing, often on a cruciform nimbus and 

 issuing downwards from a cloud. 



