1917.] GUERNSEY DOMESTIC PLATE. 57 



We can judge what these "lasses" or tazzas were like 

 by this photograph of a Guernsey tazza of this period which 

 still survives. It originally belonged to Nicolas de Sausmarez, 

 jurat, who lived in that old de Sausmarez town house, whose 

 door is still surmounted by the family arms, facing the Town 

 Church. Nicolas died in 1582, and was the ancestor of Dean 

 de Sausmarez, the second Anglican Dean of Guernsey ; his 

 branch is now extinct in the male line, and the present repre- 

 sentatives of the family descend from his younger brother 

 Jean. 



As you see, the centre of the bowl is engraved with the 

 de Sausmarez Arms, and the initials N.S., and it is noted as 

 being excessively rare for plate of that date to have arms 

 engraved upon it, only one other such specimen being known. 

 This Tazza was sold at Christie's in the Edward Taylor col- 

 lection of Old English Silver on July 11th, 1912, for £1,200 

 to Messrs. Crichton, of New Bond Street. It is described in 

 the Sale Catalogue as " An Elizabethan Silver-gilt tazza, 5£ 

 inches high, 7£ inches in diameter, date mark 1565, Maker's 

 mark 'A', weight 16 ounces 6 dwt. The beaker shaped stem 

 fluted and decorated with oblong panels; the knop compressed 

 and chased as a wreath of foliage ; the foot slightly domed 

 and chased with three marks in strap work cartouches divided 

 by groups of fruit, with egg and tongue border." 



Messrs. Crichton are asking £2,000 for this tazza, which 

 they declare to be the finest specimen of this period extant. 

 It has been impossible to trace how it got into Mr. Taylor's 

 collection, but it is— alas ! — only another instance of the way 

 beautiful old insular possessions have been allowed to drift 

 into alien hands. The name of one of Guernsey's early 

 spendthrifts has come down to us in the manuscript of Elie 

 Brevint, Minister of Sark in the early 1 7th Century. He 

 tells us that Guillaume de Beauvoir, Bailiff of Guernsey 

 (a cousin of the de Beauvoirs whose legacies I recently 

 mentioned) married, in 1576, as his second wife, the daughter 

 of Thomas Compton, late Bailiff of the Island. Elie Brevint 

 describes her as a " femme superbe, addonnee a ses plaisirs 

 qui faisoit amas de joyaux et vaissaux d'or et d'argent." This 

 collection of jewellery and vessels of gold and silver, which 

 would be perfectly priceless in these days, Elie Brevint goes 

 on to tell us, was " prodiguez pour la plus part " par Pierre de 

 Beauvoir, her eldest son, who was an Advocate in the Royal 

 Court and died in 1637. 



I have only come upon one other mention of a " Tasse " 

 or Tazza of undoubtedly 16th century date, and that is in the 



