A rare Elizabeth I provincial silver communion cup

A rare Elizabeth I provincial silver communion cup,

unmarked, but probably by Thomas Wood I, Chichester area circa 1570,

tapering circular bowl, cylindrical stem with milled bands of decoration, on a slightly raised circular foot, with a band of engraved decoration divided into five sections and inscribed 'EREN LIA NDAL MAN INGT', height 12cm, diameter of bowl 9.5cm, approx. weight 5.4oz.

Provenance:

A Private Collection.

Alastair Dickenson Ltd.

Sir Andrew Noble, John Noble and Michael Noble

Christie's 28 March 1962, lot 125.

See Kent, T. Sussex Silver and Its Makers, J. H. Bourdon-Smith Ltd. 2002, pages 8-9 for a similar example.

illustrated in Clayton, M., The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, Hamlyn 1971, page 101, plate 142.

Country Life, Judith Bannister, 'Silver Treasures from Sussex, Church Plate at Chichester Cathedral', 31 March 1977, p.792.

Country Life, 1977, perhaps April or May, a letter from Keith Spence of Tonbridge explaining the origin of the meaning of the curious inscription.

Alastair Dickenson in his research writes:

"There is a very understandable reason why the chalice is unmarked. Chichester and its environs was staunchly Catholic and once Henry VIII had banned Catholicism and instituted Protestantism as the sole religion of the nation it would have been potential suicide for a silversmith to have struck his mark on a piece secretly commissioned by a practising Catholic. Similarly he could not have sent it to an Assay Office for marking as his identity would also have been revealed.

The letter written by Keith Spence to Country Life identifies the inscription as being two adjoining parishes on the Selsey peninsula as being 'Earnley' and 'Almodington'. This is entirely plausible as they were and are on half a mile apart and in 1526 they were united under the same advowson. An advowson is the right to choose a priest. This was an important benefit usually to a local bishop or nobleman, as in those days the priest was highly influential person through sermons.

Finally the convoluted spelling may be just a local interpretation of how the parishes were pronounced, but equally possible and perhaps more likely it might have been a way of disguising the names of villages in case Henry VIII's agents caught anyone practising Catholicism."